


Come Together

by SunGirl



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Canon Typical Violence, Discussions of Drug Use, Fake AH Crew, Gang Wars, Gen, Revenge, Sleeptalking, Sleepwalking, attempted rape in chapter one, characters have very casual attitudes about alcohol and drug abuse, criminal activity (also obviously), geoff engages dad mode, im not sure how that ended up being the format but its too late now, lindsey's here now apparently, lots about crime written by someone who has no idea how crime works, murder (obviously), no shipping besides friendshipping, sleepcooking, so be cautious if that bothers you, teen rating is for violence and swearing and stuff, these characters aren't supposed to actually be the ah staff, they're just my own interpretations based on fanon and the actions of the avatars and stuff, very short chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:18:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 32
Words: 21,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunGirl/pseuds/SunGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jackie and Geoff meet first, start off small, and somehow the group expands until no one can imagine life without each other.</p><p>(Just another "how the crew got together" fic.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jackie sighs in relief, brushing her sweaty hair out of her face as she lowers herself down off the pole. God, she’s tired.

Once in the back, she pins her hair up off her neck and pulls a few makeup wipes from the box on the counter to clean off her face. The other girls are chattering to each other, making plans, but Jackie is just ready to go home.

She pulls on her coat, grateful for the extra layer over her skimpy dance costume as she steps out into the frigid air and starts to make her way across the parking lot.

She stops suddenly as a strange sound reaches her ears.

“Nah man…” A slurred voice says softly, “I don’t do this shit when I’m drunk…”

Jackie frowns. She follows the sounds of scuffling and spots them in an alley, one man pressing the other roughly up against a wall.  
The trapped man is sharply dressed in a black suit which is now dirty and rumpled, a fearful expression on his face. The way he leans against the wall suggests he is extremely drunk, probably unable to stand on his own. The other man is tall and thin, with hunched shoulders and a mean smirk. Jackie feels her teeth clench a little as she watches him run a possessive hand down the drunk man’s chest. 

“Whoa, hey!” The drunk man’s voice is surprisingly clear, “I said no! Get off! Get the fuck off me!”

Jackie wastes no more time, reaching into the inside pocket of her coat for the small pistol she keeps there. In a city like this, with a job like hers, it’s always best to be prepared.

Her heels click loudly on the pavement as she approaches, but the tall creep is too busy fumbling with the other man’s zipper to notice until the cold metal of the gun is pressed against his temple.

“Touch him again, and it will be the last thing you ever do.”

The tall man freezes.

“Whoa, lady, this isn’t what it looks like--”

“Yes it is, you piece of shit.” Jackie snarls. “Now step the fuck away.”

“Okay!” The man raises his hands above his head and steps back. “Jesus, crazy bitch…”

“Walk away.” Jackie tells him flatly.

“Okay, Okay, Christ…” The man starts walking.

Jackie watches him disappear around the corner before tucking the gun back into her coat and bending down to examine the drunk man, who has slumped against the wall, his breathing becoming erratic. 

“You okay, buddy?”

He avoids her eyes, laughing nervously.

“Wow, you, uh, sure came right in the nick of time there… I-- Thanks for that--”

“Don’t mention it.” Jackie tells him. “And breathe.”

“Right.” He nods, starting to focus on slowing down his breathing.

Once he seems to have calmed down a bit, Jackie stands up and offers him a hand. He’s heavier than she expected, but also does a much better job of supporting himself, only leaning on her a little bit for support as they head back to the parking lot.

“Hey, you want a ride home?” Jackie offers.

The man shrugs.

“Was gonna take the subway…” He mumbles.

“Driving’s probably better.” Jackie encourages. “Especially after… all that…”

“Yeah.” The man nods slowly. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

“No problem. My car’s this way. My name’s Jackie, by the way.”

“I’m Geoff.” He tells her.


	2. Chapter 2

She sees Geoff at the club again about two weeks later, and Jackie’s actually pretty sure he doesn’t recognize her, which she can’t exactly blame him for. It was dark, and he was pretty damn drunk.

When she finishes her shift she cleans up quicker than usual and goes out into the bar to see if Geoff is still there. 

He is, and as she approaches she can’t help but notice a distinctly gun-shaped lump in the breast pocket of his coat. Jackie seats herself on the bar stool next to him.

“I was starting to think you’d never come back.”

He turns to look at her and frowns, sure he remembers her from somewhere. Suddenly his face lights up.

“Holy shit, it’s you! Shit, you told me your name…”

“It’s Jackie.” She reminds him.

“Jackie, right.” Geoff nods, then frowns again. “Wait a minute, weren’t you dancing over there like ten minutes ago?”

She nods.

“I work here.”

“Oh.”

He seems surprised by that, and Jackie isn’t quite sure why.

Geoff laughs.

“So do all strippers carry guns, or are you special?”

Jackie shrugs.

“I like to be prepared.”

“Lucky for me you do.” He says quietly, and then seems to decide a change of subject is needed. “So, uh, how old are you anyway?”

“Nineteen.” She tells him, shrugging.

He stares. “Isn’t that a little young for this kind of work?”

“Officially, yeah.” Jackie tells him. “But in reality, not really. A lot of girls lie about their ages, and the managers let ‘em get away with it. Younger dancers attract more customers.”

Geoff nods slowly.

“Guess that makes sense. Unfortunately.”

“So how old are you?” Jackie asks him.

“Twenty-three.” He tells her honestly.

Jackie nods.

“My brother just turned twenty four.”

“Your brother? Does he know you strip?”

She shakes her head.

“He lives in Iowa. I told him I’m a waitress.”

Geoff nods, and it looks like he’s thinking hard about something. Finally he says,

“I understand you don’t want your brother to know what you’re doing here, but you should really tell somebody. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about the kind of hazards that come with this job. Clearly you’re prepared and all, but you should still have somebody watching your back, y’know? Somebody to call in an emergency, to miss you if you don’t come home.”

She leans back against the bar, looking at him curiously.

“You offering to be ‘somebody’?”

He shrugs, looking down at his drink.

“Least I could do, really.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to try and update this fic every week or so, since the chapters are so short. I might not be able to stay on that schedule once school really gets going, but that's the goal for now. Hope you all are enjoying this!


	3. Chapter 3

They exchange numbers, and set up a plan.

Every night when she gets home from work, Jackie texts Geoff to tell him she’s safe. If it’s past 1 am and he hasn’t heard from her, he calls three times, ten minutes apart. If she hasn’t picked up by the third call, he calls the police.

It’s weird at first, reaffirming her safety nightly to someone she barely knows. Sometimes they go weeks with no communication besides a series of call-and-response texts that say ‘I’m alive’ and ‘Good’.

But it’s comforting too. Once she gets used to it, the idea that she ever lived in a world where she could have vanished for three or four days without anyone noticing is terrifying.

They only get to the third call once, when Jackie works two consecutive six hour shifts, gets home exhausted and barely even makes it to the couch, let alone her bed, before she falls asleep. After that she gives Geoff her address, so he can just drive over and check on her instead of relying on phones.

She’s surprised the first night she gets home to find Geoff sitting on her fire escape with a bag of chips and a six pack of beer, but slowly it starts happening more and more until it’s at least once a week, and she starts stocking her cabinets and fridge so he isn’t always the one buying. 

Sometimes she even calls him after a particularly hard day, and it quickly turns from tentative questions about if he’s maybe considering coming over that night to ‘I feel like shit, you better be at my apartment with booze by the time I get there.’

Their relationship of protection slowly and unofficially becomes mutual. 

Jackie isn’t one-hundred percent sure when it became her job to drive over to Geoff’s house at six in the morning and make sure he’s not passed out drunk on his kitchen floor, but when she thinks about it she realises she doesn’t mind as much as she probably should.

Geoff only tries to kiss her once, and is remarkably chill about it when she backs away and awkwardly explains that guys just really aren’t her thing, sorry.

It’s about two months after that that she gives him a key, and Geoff starts to come and go as he pleases, sometimes spending the night with her, sometimes eating her food, sometimes buying groceries while she’s off at work. 

One year she even comes home to find a cake waiting for her, and a note from Geoff saying he’s sorry he couldn’t stay, something came up. It’s only then that she remembers it’s her birthday.

Years continue to go by, and what started out as an agreement with a stranger slowly becomes one of the closest and most important friendships Jackie has ever had. It seems like they’ve known each other forever.

In fact, it’s been almost exactly four years to the day when Geoff calls up and offers her a job.

And that’s when things _really_ start to get interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

“We’re gonna rob a bank.” Geoff tells her the next morning when she walks into his house and demands to know what all of this is about.

Jackie stares at him, not exactly sure how to respond to that.

It’s not like she doesn’t know what Geoff does. She’s known for years, but his takes are usually small, holding up a gas-station here, selling a bit of weed there. A bank is… well, that’s a little bit different.

“What?” She manages finally.

“We’re gonna rob a bank.” Geoff repeats, so matter-of-fact that it barely even sounds strange. “You and me. Together.”

Jackie stares at him for another long moment.

“Okay.” She says finally. “We’re gonna rob a bank.”

\--

And rob a bank they do.

“No vault.” Geoff explains as they sit in his kitchen, looking at a map of the bank. “Two of us can’t handle that by ourselves. We’re just going for the cash in the drawers. If this all works out, maybe we’ll try for the vault another time.”

Jackie raises her eyebrows at him.

“Another time?”

“Yeah.” Geoff says, grinning. “If this works, you better damn well believe we’re gonna do it more that once.”

\--

In the end, they make it away with seven thousand dollars and their lives.

They ditch their stolen get-away car in an alley with the cops not far behind, run into a nearby abandoned warehouse, follow a maintenance shaft to the building a few doors down, hop on a motorcycle, and make it back to Geoff’s house where they collapse, breathless and giggling, onto his couch.

“We did it.” Geoff breathes, still clutching the dufflebag of cash to his chest. “I don’t believe it. We really fuckin’ pulled it off!”

“Yeah…” Jackie says softly, shaking her head. “Yeah, we did.”

Geoff jumps up off the couch, throwing the money to the ground.

“God damn, I need a drink!” He declares, practically skipping into the kitchen. 

He opens the cabinet above the microwave and reaches past the wine and brandy to pull out a small, elegant bottle that Jackie can tell even from her spot on the couch is very expensive whiskey. Geoff grins at her.

“Been saving this one for a special occasion. What do you say?”

Jackie laughs breathlessly.

“You read my mind, man.”

Geoff laughs too, getting out glasses and filling them with ice and liquor.

“So…” He says as he sits down and hands Jackie her glass. “How does it feel to have your next three months of rent paid off?”

“God damn fantastic.”

They clink glasses, and Geoff winks at her.

“Do you wanna do it again?”

Jackie tips back her glass, closing her eyes as she drains half her drink in a few long swallows. Then her eyes snap open and she sets her glass heavily on the coffee table.

“Hell yes.”

And so they do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a bit late, I've had some personal stuff going on but I'll try to keep up with the fic as much as I can!


	5. Chapter 5

It’s not until after the second job, sitting on Geoff’s couch with his head in her lap while she patches up a cut in his forehead, that Jackie thinks to ask where he got the security plans and maps of the bank that allowed them to pull it all off.

He grins up at her.

“I was wondering when you’d ask. I’ve got a guy. Never met him in person, but he’s the best hacker on this side of... well, anywhere.”

“Impressive. What’s his name?”

“Don’t know. He just goes by ‘Free’, but I’m sure it’s an alias. I’ve spoken to him on the phone a couple of times though and he’s definitely British, I can tell you that much. Not sure if he’s still living there, but it doesn’t really matter. He does his job, and he’s goddamn good at it, so I don’t ask questions.”

“And what does he get out of it?” Jackie asks curiously.

“I wire him twenty percent of the take for any job he helps on.” Geoff explains.

Jackie frowns at him.

“But… haven’t we been splitting the money fifty-fifty so far?”

Geoff sits up and shrugs.

“Well, I guess it’s more like fifty-thirty-twenty if you want to get technical, but--”

“Geoff!”

He blinks at her, not sure what he’s being scolded for.

“Yeah…?”

“You’ve been giving me fifty percent and only taking thirty for yourself?”

“Uh, yeah… I mean, I figure you need it more...”

“I’ve got a job, and you’ve got a mortgage, how the hell do I need it more?”

Geoff holds up his hands defensively.

“Wait a minute, let me just check that I’ve got this straight. You’re mad at me because I’m giving you money?”

“Yeah.” Jackie crosses her arms over her chest. “I thought we were partners, Geoff.”

“We are!” He says quickly.

“Then what the hell? Why are you treating me like some charity case? And why did you lie to me about it? It would be one thing if you didn’t need the money, but you do, you need it just as much as I do, probably more!”

“Sorry.” Geoff says hesitantly, still looking confused. “Sorry, I… I thought you’d… I just wanted… I wanted you to like this.”

It’s Jackie’s turn to be confused now.

“Wait, what?”

Geoff shrugs.

“I dunno, I just thought maybe if you felt like you were making good money off this you-- you’d wanna keep doing it and you’d be able to quit your job and we could start doing bigger things and be a team and all! Break into bank vaults, get rich, start a gang, really make it, you know? And then we could keep expanding, we could do anything, we could rule this place!”

Jackie stares at him, at this stupid, reckless, man who’s got big plans, who’s desperate to make it to the top, and who has, for whatever reason, decided he wants her there with him.

“Wait, seriously? You lied about the money so I’d start a gang with you and we could rule Los Santos together?”

“Um, yes?” He says sheepishly.

And then Jackie’s laughing, can’t help it, can’t stop.

“Oh my God. You’re adorable, you know that?”

“...uh?”

“I mean, you actually tried to pay me off to found a criminal empire with you?”

“Well, when-- when you put it like that…”

“You idiot. The money’s nice, but I’d do that for free.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More characters coming soon, I promise! Ray will be in chapter 7!


	6. Chapter 6

They hit one more bank before Geoff, ever the strategist, decides they need to keep a low profile for a bit. He seems more patient since their conversation about the money, less anxious about forcing things to go well.

They do a few convenience stores, some pick-pocketing, a handful of false ATM withdrawals. One night they smash the giant plate glass window of some rich old guy’s living room, grab what they can get in two minutes, and make a run for it before the police have time to respond to the security call.

Weeks turn into months, and Jackie finds she’s slowly getting used to this life. She hasn’t quit her job yet, but it’s now a solidified goal, something that will happen in the foreseeable future if all goes according to plan.

The next time they try a bank, some guy pulls a gun on Geoff, who’s busy getting cash into the bag.

From the first job Geoff invited her on, Jackie has known this moment would come, that she’d have to choose between a stranger’s life and Geoff. She always expected to feel fear, conflict, remorse, she expected that it would be hard. But it isn’t. It’s the easiest thing she’s ever done. She barely even thinks before her finger’s on the trigger, before the guy’s pushed back against the wall, red blossoming across his chest, and even then all she cares about is that the barrel of his gun empties into the ceiling instead of Geoff’s head.

Later, sitting in front of the TV with Geoff running his fingers slowly through her hair, she thinks she should be worried that she doesn’t feel guilty, that she’s happy her and Geoff made it out alright, that they got the money, that cops didn’t catch them. She thinks she should wonder if the guy had kids, a family, but she doesn’t. She just nods slowly and squeezes Geoff’s hand when he whispers his thanks, and he doesn’t press the subject.

They do two more banks after that, then switch to smaller again for a while.

She starts spending a lot more time at Geoff’s, sometimes sleeping the night, sometimes even driving over right after work, not even bothering to go back to her apartment. Right around the time that she realizes she hasn’t slept in her own bed for four nights straight, that she’s got a week’s worth of clothes stashed in Geoff’s closet, that’s when he tells her they’re about to do something really big.

\---

“We’re gonna need help for this.” Geoff tells her as she sits down at his dining room table to look at the maps and plans littering it’s surface. “It’s not gonna be a two person job.”

“Lemme guess.” Jackie says, grinning at him, “We’re gonna do a vault.”

Geoff looks back at her across the table, his eyes shining triumphantly like he can already see their prize.

“You’re damn right we are.” He leans against the table, palms down on it’s surface, thinking a moment. “Now, the way I figure this, we’re gonna need two more guys. One to watch our backs, probably from a roof nearby, and one to--”

“Guys, huh?” Jackie asks, raising an eyebrow at him. “How do you know they’re gonna be guys?”

“Well, I know the sniper is.” Geoff amends. “Cause I’ve picked him out already.”

“Oh?” Jackie asks. “Who?”

“His name’s Ray.” Geoff says, rifling through some papers to pull out a photo of a guy who looks to be in his early twenties. “He doesn’t have a huge amount of experience, but he’s smart, he’s quick, and he pays attention. That’s what we need.”

Jackie nods approvingly. 

“And where did you meet this perfect candidate?”

“He used to sell weed to me.” Geoff shrugs. “Now he sells it for me.”

Jackie frowns at him.

“You want a drug dealer watching our backs during a bank job? Are you serious?”

Geoff rolls his eyes.

“The kid’s fresh out of college, give him a break. He’s just dealing until something better comes along. And you can bet this is gonna be better.”

Jackie watches him for a long minute before giving in.

“Alright. But you better be right about this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fiiiiiinally adding another character in the next chapter haha


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ray's finally here!!

It’s been a week, and Jackie has yet to actually meet Ray in person, but Geoff has arranged what he calls a ‘test’ for the other man’s skills.

They hit a gas station.

Jackie isn’t stupid enough to look up as they head inside, but she knows if she did there’d be a figure crouched on a nearby roof, watching her. Geoff’s probably got Ray patched into their comm system too, and even as she levels her gun at the man behind the register, she feels a bizarre sense a deja vu, knowing there’s an unseen stranger looking out for her well-being.

It’s lucky he is, too.

The actual job goes off without a hitch. The clerk is terrified, hands the money right over, doesn’t give them any trouble.

But when they step outside there’s a cop just waiting for them, right there, gun already drawn, as if the universe knew, just _knew_ how close they were to getting out of here clean.

Then he crumples to the ground, and Geoff grins like it’s Christmas morning as they sprint across the street to their car. As they speed away Jackie thinks she can just see a shape duck out of sight atop the building next door.

\---

Geoff is positively giddy by the time they arrive home.

“I knew he could do it!” He keeps saying, “I told you he’d come through! Love that kid! Love him!”

“That _was_ pretty damn impressive.” Jackie admits.

Geoff beams at her. 

“So was I right, or was I right?”

She rolls her eyes.

“You were right.”

“Oh yeah.” Geoff lets himself fall back onto the couch, his arms spread wide. “We’re doing this, Jackie. It’s really gonna happen.”

Jackie opens her mouth to call him an idiot, but is interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on Geoff’s front door.

Geoff immediately jumps up off the couch.

“That’ll be Ray! I invited him over, hope you don’t mind.”

“What would you do if I did?” Jackie teases, but Geoff is already ignoring her in favor of the young man who has just come inside.

“You were fuckin’ fantastic!” He says excitedly, hugging Ray, who looks a bit startled but hugs Geoff back anyway. “I knew you’d come through on this! Jackie doubted you, but I told her you could do it. Jackie, didn’t I tell you he could do it?”

“You did.” Jackie agrees mildly, standing and walking over to greet the kid once Geoff has let go of him. She holds out a hand and offers him a small smile. “I’m Jackie.”

“Hi.” He says, shaking her hand and almost but not quite meeting her eyes. “I’m Ray.”

Geoff pats him on the shoulder. “C’mon, man, don’t be shy. Jackie only bites a little.”

Jackie rolls her eyes.

“Geoff, you’re scaring him.”

“Nah.” Ray laughs softly. “I’m good. I’m used to Geoff by now.”

Jackie nods approvingly.

“I’m impressed. Tolerating Geoff is a difficult skill to master.”

“Ah, shut up, both of you.” Geoff scoffs. “Who wants a drink?”

He’s already getting bottles and glasses out of the cabinet, which is fine by Jackie, Geoff knows what she likes, but Ray looks a little uncertain.

“Uh, sorry to be a jerk…” He says quietly, “But, you got anything that’s, y’know... not booze?”

Geoff stares at him for a moment before smacking a hand against his forehead.

“Right, sorry man, I forgot. There’s cokes in the fridge, if you want…?”

“That’s perfect.” Ray says, nodding. “Thanks.”

When they sit down in the living room a few minutes later, respective drinks in hand, Geoff raises his glass in a toast.

“To Ray. Welcome to the crew, man.”

Jackie raises an eyebrow at him.

“There’s a crew, now?”

“Well sure.” Geoff shrugs. “If this next big job goes well, we can start expanding. And if we’re gonna do that, we’re gonna need more of a team than two people.”

Jackie rolls her eyes.

“You’ve been planning all of this from the beginning, haven’t you?”

Geoff shrugs innocently, taking a sip of his drink.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooh boy this update is late! Sorry folks, finals hit me a bit harder than expected, but I should be able to keep to the regular schedule now that things are calming down.

Over the next week, Jackie really starts to like Ray. He helps them out on a few more jobs, starts coming by Geoff’s some nights to watch movies or play cards or video games. He’s even more competitive than she is, which is saying something. In a lot of ways, she thinks the relationship that’s beginning to form between them is something like the one her and Jack would have had if their ages had been reversed.

Ray reminds her of her brother a lot. He’s a little shy, but not overly nervous, just naturally quiet. He does get loud sometimes though, especially when they’re gaming, especially if he’s winning. He’s incredibly smart, just like Geoff said, and not just knowledge wise either. Ray’s always thinking, never misses a word of conversation, seems to pick up new skills in his sleep. Jackie really enjoys talking to him, spending time with him, even if it does make her miss Jack.

One time, she asks him why a guy with a college education would want to sell pot and rob banks. Ray laughs.

“Nobody knows this unless they’ve gone, but college isn’t worth shit. Maybe it used to be, but not anymore. I haven’t found a job in eighteen months of trying. Selling pot for Geoff is the only reason I’m not on the streets. Oh yeah, and did I mention that I’m not only unemployed, but fifty thousand dollars in debt to the institution that failed to give me the skills to actually make any money?”

Jackie stares at him.

“Fifty _thousand_ dollars?”

“Plus interest, pretty soon.” Ray sighs, running his hands through his hair in agitation.

“Jesus.” Jackie whistles. “I’m surprised there’s not an army of you guys robbing banks at this point.”

Ray laughs.

“I’ll recommend it to them.” He shrugs. “But a lot of people do get luckier than I did. Just trying to make my own luck now, I guess.”

Jackie sighs, offering him a tired smile.

“Aren’t we all.”

\---

A few days later, Geoff’s started to get intensely into the planning phase of their big scheme. The only problem is, they’re still down a man. In order for Geoff’s plan to work, they need what he describes as ‘somebody who can make things go boom’, and for some reason they’re having trouble finding one.

Well, technically they’ve found a bunch, but they’ve all either already established themselves in gangs, or are just too wild to be reliable.

Finally, a breakthrough comes while Jackie and Geoff are looking over plans at the dinner table, Ray in the kitchen making them all pasta. They’re pouring over Geoff’s quickly dwindling list of contact who might be able to help, when Ray pokes his head around the door.

“Did I hear you guys say you need someone on explosives and demolition?”

Geoff raises an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, I might know a guy…”

“Really?” Geoff asks excitedly. “Who?”

Ray frowns.

“Well, I’d have to talk to him first, before I can…”

“Sure.” Geoff nods, “I can finish the cooking, if you want to give him a call...?”

“Uh, okay.” Ray agrees, a little taken aback but pulling out his phone nonetheless. “Yeah, I-I guess I could do it now…”

Jackie sits down to examine another map of the bank, trying to look as though she’s not actively listening in on Ray’s conversation.

“Michael?” He says quietly into the phone after a few seconds. “Hey. So, um, I’m with some people, and they’re looking for help on a project they’re doing, they need somebody to do demolitions, so I thought I’d give you a call…” He pauses a moment, listening. “Yeah, it’s… Well it’s sort of, not legal exactly, so… Yeah, I know you don’t. But I wanted to check, y’know, just in case. I didn’t know if you’d… Uh, it’s… it’s a bank, actually. Yeah. Me neither, but… Mhm. So you’re interested, then?” He laughs a little. “Okay, I’ll tell them you said that. Bye.”

He hangs up.

Jackie grins at him.

“What are you telling us?”

Ray laughs again.

“He says, ‘Hell yes, I’m in, this is gonna be fucking sweet!’”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have used Ray as an outlet for my deep frustration with the american college system. Whoops.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Michael's finally here!!

In a lot of ways, Michael is exactly what Jackie was expecting; loud, abrasive, excitable, and absolutely in love with his work. But his dedication is of a different kind than most of the demolition guys she’s met. Sure, he loves ‘blowing shit the fuck up’, but he also seems to love the process, takes pride in the skill and care with which he crafts his deadly weapons. He sort of reminds her of one of those wildlife expert guys, the way they’ll be obsessed with tigers or cobras or something, maintaining a delicate balance between deep love for the creatures and respect for their destructive power.

He’s the first bomb maker Jackie has ever met who doesn’t feel like he’s a bomb himself. 

Watching him and Ray together is really sort of funny. They’re opposites in almost every way. Ray’s the quiet to Michael’s loud, the shy to his gregarious, the careful planner to his complete daredevil. And yet they get along better than any two people Jackie has ever met, moving in sync, finishing each other’s sentences, she’d think they were twins if not for the fact that they look nothing alike.

Two days after meeting Michael, she watches him build a bomb in his garage while Ray hands him tools, and finds herself forgetting that they’re actually two separate people, instead of a single entity with an extra set of limbs.

And god, to think she thought _Ray_ was competitive. On the contrary, she’s now starting to suspect that Ray’s attitude is a direct result of too much time spent with Michael as his opponent. There’s no such thing as a casual game when those two are facing off. One night it gets so bad that Geoff ends up shouting at them to quiet down for fuck’s sake, _some people_ are trying to concentrate on planning a felony.

\--

When the day of the job finally comes, Michael somehow seems to be the only one who’s not on edge. He projects a zen sort of focus, all business, prepared to do his job and do it well. It’s reassuring, especially when Jackie considers the unpleasant combination of excitement and nerves spinning in her own stomach. This is it. Two months of planning, and it all comes down to today.

Ray’s hands are shaking while he helps load equipment into the car. Geoff tries to project confidence, but Jackie can tell he’s nervous too.

They drop Ray off a block from the bank and give him time to set up before heading in for real. Jackie thinks is might be the longest fifteen minutes she’s ever experienced.

Finally, Geoff takes a deep breath.

“Alright. Show time.”

The three of them pull on their masks and jump out of the car. Jackie and Geoff move in first, flanking Michael with their guns pointed at the crowd, trying to get him back to the vault as fast as possible.Once they’ve made it to behind the counter, Geoff and Michael split off to tackle the vault while Jackie keeps an eye on the crowd.

As the tense seconds pass, Jackie realizes how wrong she was waiting in the car. This is the moment when everything matters. So many things could go wrong. Time has never passed, will never pass, more slowly than it is passing now.

After what seems like an eternity, the sound of an explosion makes her jump, and she vaguely registers panicked screams from the crowd.

Okay. The plan is working. Okay.

Years seem to pass as her gun starts to shake with her hands. Jackie feels sick. What’s taking Geoff and Michael so long? Surely they should be done by now. Something must have gone wrong.

Then, suddenly, the two men are running past her, bags slung over their shoulders, Geoff screaming her name.

Time stops going in slow motion and picks up again at warp speed. Jackie barely remembers how they made it to the car, or the drive to their appointed meeting place. Her memory only picks up clearly again when she sees Ray appear on a motorcycle outside the doorway of the abandoned factory building.

“Hey.” He says casually, smiling at them. “How’d it go?”

\--

They lay low in the old warehouse for a few hours to make sure the coast is clear, but it’s not until they make it safely back to Geoff’s house that they dare to count the money.

Fifty thousand dollars.

Jackie doesn’t think she has ever seen Geoff so happy.

“We did it, Jackie!” He keeps telling her. “We pulled it off! We’ve got a proper crew now! We’re making it!”

The next morning, Jackie quits her job.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is mostly just cute fluffy bonding shit, but that's part of the point of this fic anyway so

Jackie’s not sure exactly why, but over the next few weeks, things begin to feel different. Life takes on a pattern she’s never quite known before, one involving not just her and Geoff, but Ray and Michael too.

Even when they’re not on a job, or even planning one, they all seem to end up at Geoff’s house anyway, watching television, playing video games, sometimes just talking. 

Jackie discovers that Michael is frightened of spiders, while Ray will calmly carry them into the garden on a napkin, outright refusing to kill them. It’s a relief to have someone else in the group who is willing to interact with the creatures, seeing as how Geoff once called her up at 5 am to come kill a spider no bigger than a dime, legs and all.

She also learns that Ray doesn’t drink because his father was an alcoholic, that Michael is a restless sleeper who snores even louder than Geoff does, and that Ray can sleep through it all completely oblivious.

The fourth time they all spend the night at Geoff’s place, she discovers that Michael not only walks and talks in his sleep, but much, much more.

Jackie shares the bed with Geoff during this arrangement, there’s plenty of room after all, and at this point they’re past the awkwardness.

Michael and Ray, meanwhile, take the pullout couch in the living room.

At roughly three in the morning, Jackie wakes up and stumbles to the bathroom, half awake. She doesn’t even turn on the lights, fully intending to get back to bed as soon as possible. She is soon distracted, however, by a strange sound coming from the direction of the living room.

Curious, she makes her way quietly down the hallway. The living room is still and dark, but she can still hear what sounds like singing coming from the kitchen beyond.

She crosses the room quickly and pushes open the door to find Michael standing at the stove, humming wordlessly to himself as he stirs something in a bowl under his arm.

“Michael?” She tries, but gets no response. Upon closer investigation, she discovers that his eyes are closed.

She also realises that the stove is lit, and that there is actually something in the bowl Michael is stirring; flour, if the bag sitting tipped over on the kitchen counter is any indication.

“Michael?” She says again. “Michael, what are you doing?”

“Pancakes…” he mumbles blearily.

That explains the stove, as well as the flour and bowl. He has, however, neglected to provide himself a pan in which to cook the food. This isn’t really Jackie’s main concern at the moment, however.

“Michael, it’s the middle of the night!”

“Pancakes.” Michael insists, a little more force behind the word this time.

“We can make pancakes in the morning.” Jackie tries to reason with him, still not entirely awake herself. “Right now you need to go to bed.”

Michael shakes his head.

“Mm-mmm. Pancakes.” And before Jackie realises what is happening he has tipped the bowl on it’s side, pouring the wet batter into where the pan would normally be. As it is, the lit burner just sputters and hisses, the acrid smell of burning rising from where flame touches flour.

Jackie quickly reaches out and turns off the burner, before taking the bowl and spoon from Michael’s hands.

“Pancakes…” He says plaintively, making a half-hearted grasping motion.

“No.” Jackie shakes her head. “No pancakes. Bed.”

Michael sighs, hanging his head.

“Okay.”

He turns and trudges dejectedly back into the living room.

Jackie follows him to the doorway, shaking her head in disbelief as she watches him lay down again next to Ray, draping one arm over the other man’s shoulders and soon looking for all the world like the incident in the kitchen never happened, as if he’s been sleeping peacefully there all through the night.

She briefly considers cleaning up the kitchen, but her body is screaming at her to get back to bed. Someone will deal with it in the morning.

\--

When she explains what happened the next day, neither Michael nor Ray seems surprised. In fact, Ray gleefully recounts the tale of waking one Saturday at seventeen to find Michael in the driveway trying to start his car in his sleep, eyes still closed, insisting he was going to be late for school.

Michael just shrugs at this recitation, barely even looking embarrassed, and points out that he’s been hiding his car keys from his sleeping self ever since.

Three weeks later Geoff finds him in the shower at four am, his hair and pjs soaking wet, yet somehow still asleep.

Again, Ray doesn’t seem remotely surprised.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit gets intense

From there, things only seem to get even bigger, even faster. Soon their crew has a name, a hideout, even a territory. They have contacts, they negotiate deals, they are known to other gangs, and to people at large. The Fake AH Crew is still a small time player, but they nevertheless have a seat at the table. Los Santos has started to sit up and take notice.

Of course, their base of operations is still Geoff’s living room, but they’re working on that.

Jackie didn’t think she’d ever really care about their prestige or reputation, but she can’t help but share Geoff’s excitement each time something happens to evidence their newfound influence.

The next milestone in their ‘rise to the top,’ as Geoff calls it, comes rather unexpectedly. The crew wakes one morning to find the tires on all their vehicles slashed, paint scratched, and tagged with the symbol of a bright red skull and crossbones.

Geoff is absolutely ecstatic.

“Do you know what this means?” He asks, looking around at the rest of them brightly.

“I’m really glad I have enough money for a new car?” Ray suggests.

Geoff shakes his head.

Michael shrugs.

“Somebody’s pissed at us?”

“Not just anybody.” Geoff shakes his head. “The _Crimson Pirates._ They’re huge! Used to control half the city!”

“Used to?” Jackie asks, frowning.

“Their reach has gone down the last couple of years.” Geoff shrugs. “But they’ve still got one hell of a reputation. Man, I can’t believe they’re actually threatening us! Holy shit, what a fucking honor!”

Jackie raises an eyebrow at him.

“Honor?”

“They wouldn’t be pissed if they thought we were worthless!” Geoff explains, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “The fact that attacked us means they feel threatened by us! And that means we’re fucking awesome!”

“I guess that’s pretty cool.” Ray agrees. “Still, I really liked this car…”

“We’ll get you a new one.” Geoff encourages, patting him on the back. 

Ray frowns at him.

“Shouldn’t we be like… I dunno, worried, that way more powerful people are pissed at us? This doesn’t feel like the end. It feels like a warning.”

“I’ll have my computer guy look up some stuff in the Pirates, so we can be prepared, just in case.” Geoff reassures him. “But I wouldn’t worry too much.”

\---

As it turns out, they didn’t worry enough.

Three weeks later Ray and Michael are out driving when a car pulls up next to them and someone in the backseat opens fire.

Luckily Michael is able to lose them, but not before a bullet rips through Ray’s shoulder.

The resulting phone call is the first time Jackie has ever heard Michael anywhere even close to panic.

“Fuck!” He’s screaming into the receiver, “Fuck, there’s so much fucking blood! What the fuck do I do?!”

Jackie, as calmly as she can, instructs him to drive home, while Geoff prepares Ray a fake ID so they can get him to a hospital.

Ray is pale and shaking when Michael stops with a loud screeching noise in Geoff’s driveway, but still awake and as coherent as can reasonably be expected for someone with a gunshot wound in his shoulder.

“Do you have it?” Michael asks frantically as Geoff and Jackie run out to the car.

The older man nods.

“Let me drive.”

For a moment, Jackie thinks Michael is going to refuse. The look on his face is fierce and his hands clenched so hard on the steering wheel the knuckles are going while. But then he nods shakily and slips into the backseat.

“Y-Yeah. Okay. Probably a good idea.”

Jackie slides into the seat next to Michael, leaning forward so that she can reach Ray in the passenger seat, handing him towels from Geoff’s bathroom to keep pressure on the wound as they drive.

Ray is starting to lose consciousness by the time they arrive at the hospital, and Geoff dashes in to get the doctors, who bring out a stretcher and carry Ray inside.

Half an hour later, Geoff returns and drops down onto the curb.

“They said he’ll be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm soooooo sorry it's taking me so long to update this. I wish I could say it was because I'm busy, but honestly I'm just lazy and unmotivated. I'll try to do better.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've had such a ridiculous mental block on writing lately, but hopefully this chapter isn't _too_ terrible because of it. As always, I'm sorry for my irregular/infrequent updates. Gavin finally shows up in the next chapter, so look forward to that!

Ray gets out of the hospital three days later, his arm bandaged tight against his body to take as much pressure off his shoulder as possible. Geoff is at his side the moment he steps in the house, and doesn’t leave it for another week.

Almost all of that time involves Ray resting on Geoff’s bed while Geoff brings him meals, water, medicine, and anything else he might need, insisting that Ray keep still and rest, that he needs to recover. Ray tries to tell him several times that he doesn’t need all the attention, but Geoff will hear none of it.

It’s not hard to tell he’s trying to make up for what happened, especially since Geoff has barely talked since the hospital, unless it’s to or about Ray. And no one has made any mention of the crew or new jobs.

On the fourth day of this routine, Ray finally confronts him.

“Geoff, you don’t have to do this, okay?”

“Do what?”

“Take care of me like this.”

“Someone has to.”

“No, they really don’t. I’m okay. I know what happened was scary and all, I mean fuck, I was terrified, but we made it though. Everything’s alright now. I promise.”

Geoff shakes his head.

“Everything is _not_ alright. You got hurt, Ray. You got hurt because I was too cocky and stupid to take those threats seriously. I was concerned about our reputation, when I should have been concerned about you.”

“Hey, c’mon. None of us could have predicted it was gonna get that bad.”

“You tried to warn me.” Geoff mumbles. “You tried to warn me and I didn’t listen.”

Ray sighs.

“Yeah, okay, so you were a little stupid. But that shit probably would have happened anyway. From what I’ve heard about the Pirates, they’re pretty good at getting to people who don’t want to be got.”

“They wouldn’t have needed to get to you if I’d just listened to their warnings.” Geoff says, looking at the floor.

Ray stares.

“What? You’re not serious right? Like Hell we’d give up everything we worked for because of some threats!”

“Threats?!” Geoff asks incredulously. “Ray, they _shot_ you!”

“Yeah, but I’m fine.”

“Because you got lucky! What if you hadn’t?! What if they had-- Look. I screwed up Ray. Really bad. I put you in danger for my stupid dream, and it almost got you killed. I-- I'm sorry.”

“No.” Ray shakes his head. “I put myself in danger. I’m not an idiot, Geoff. I knew what I was signing up for when I joined you guys. This life isn’t safe. It never has been and never will be. You can’t protect me. But you didn’t force me to do this. I did it because I wanted to. I still do. You’re not the only one with dreams, you know.”

Geoff is silent for a long time, watching Ray carefully.

“So you… you don’t want to stop?”

“Stop? Are you kidding me? We were just starting to get to the good part. You couldn’t pay me to stop now.”

“Really?”

“Really. This life is dangerous, I’ve accepted that. But I love it. I wanna get back out there as much as you do.”

“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do.” Geoff promises. “And next time we run across the Crimson Pirates, we’ll make them sorry they ever heard our names.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin is finally here! Yaaaay!

Nearly three months later finds them celebrating the anniversary of their first job together as a team. 

The party is also the first night they spend in their new base on the nice side of town, recently purchased by Geoff, who is proud as always to have crossed another milestone in their assent.

They each have their own bedroom now, plus a spare, three bathrooms, and an enormous tv, which they all know will be mostly used for gaming.

But more important than the extra space, is that it's home now. They're all living together, like more than just a crew. Like a family. And, Jackie thinks, maybe that's what they are.

\--

They finally go to bed at three in the morning, exhausted but happy. At five in the morning, the phone rings. Jackie squints and rubs her eyes, wondering if someone else will get it. Of course they won’t. Ray and Michael’s rooms are upstairs, and Geoff sleeps like the dead when he’s been drinking. Jackie groans and rolls over, wobbling a bit as she gets on her feet.

The hall is almost pitch black, and in the time in takes her to navigate the darkness, the phone has stopped ringing. But just when she’s about to curse everything and head back to bed, it starts up again.

Jackie stumbles into the living room and picks up the phone.

“Hello…?”

“Oh thank God!” Says a shrill voice on the other end. “You have to help me!”

Jackie rubs her eyes groggily.

“What…?”

“You have to help me!” The man on the other end repeats. It’s a man, Jackie’s brain has at least processed that much. A man with a British accent. He sounds young. And terrified. “Please! I don’t know who else to call!”

“Wait, slow down…” Jackie shakes her head. “Who the fuck is this?”

The other end of the line goes silent.

“Fuck. This isn’t Geoff. Of course it isn’t, you don’t even sound like--”

“Who is this?”

“N-Nevermind.” The man says, sounding like he’s about to cry. “I probably have the wrong number, or…”

Jackie really should just let it go, this could all be a set up, but her curiousity gets the better of her and she takes a risk.

“You don’t.”

“I’m sorry to have bother-- what?”

“You don’t have the wrong number.” Jackie repeats. “Geoff’s here.”

“Really?” The voice on the other end is more relieved than Jackie has ever heard anyone sound. “Thank God, I need to talk to him! Right now!”

Jackie frowns.

“He’s asleep. I’m not gonna wake him up unless it’s important, so you better tell me who you are and what you’re so scared of that it's got you calling in the middle of the night.”

The man on the other end takes a deep breath.”I… okay. My name is Gavin Free. I've helped Geoff with some jobs, getting information, and--”

“Wait, you’re Geoff’s hacker contact?”

“Uh… Yes?”

Jackie frowns.

“Hang on a sec. Is ‘Free’ your actual name?”

“Yes.”

“You used part of your real, legal name as an alias?”

“Yes...?”

“That's… How on earth have you not been caught yet?”

There is a long silence on the other end of the line. Finally Jackie realizes.

“Oh.”

“I don't know what to do!” Gavin squeaks desperately. “Please, Geoff is the only person I know who will help!”

Jackie takes a deep breath and sighs it out.

“Okay. Just. Hang on a sec. I'll go wake up Geoff.”


	14. Chapter 14

Geoff is on the phone with Gavin for almost two hours, and when he finally hangs up he shakes his head a little in disbelief.

“Can’t believe he was stupid enough to use his real name as an alias. Who _does_ that?”

Jackie sighs.

“I dunno. It’s a rookie mistake, that’s for sure.”

Geoff just shakes his head again.

“Anyway, we’ll be at the airport at three tomorrow afternoon. If Gavin’s lucky, he’ll be there too.”

\--

They leave Ray and Michael in charge of the house around one thirty and head out to the airport. Jackie drives, because while she may be just as tired as Geoff, she isn’t even half as hung over.

They wait by the third pillar left of the gate, a pre-arranged meeting spot, for about twenty minutes before someone finally approaches them. Someone who Jackie thinks is barely old enough to be called a man, but not young enough to be a boy. 

“Uh, Geoff?” He asks nervously.

Jackie stares. This is definitely not what she was expecting. He looks like a nervous college freshman who’s wondering how he’s going to survive without his mom around to pack lunch and do the laundry. The whole ‘rookie mistake’ thing is suddenly starting to make a lot more sense.

Geoff clears his throat, clearly taken aback as well.

“So, uh, you’re him, then? Gavin Free?”

The guy nods.

“Right.” Geoff agrees, trying not to sound surprised as he turns to head out of the airport.

Gavin follows docilely behind him, not saying anything until they reach the parking lot, and even then it’s only,

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Geoff tells him. Seriously, don’t. The less people know about this, the less chance there is of someone tracking you down.”

“Right.” Gavin agrees.

They get in the car and in minutes they’re back on the highway, Jackie watching Gavin curiously in the rear-view mirror.

“How old are you, anyway?” She asks him.

“Twenty.” Gavin says shyly. “Almost twenty one.”

Geoff twists around in the passenger’s seat to stare at him in disbelief.

“That's impossible! I started using you for jobs _four years ago_!”

Gavin shrugs.

“So?”

“‘So?’” Geoff splutters. “So, you were what, sixteen the first time I contracted you?!”

Gavin looks at his shoes.

“Yeah.”

Geoff’s eyes are nearly popping out of his head.

“You started hacking when you were /sixteen/?”

“Actually, I started hacking when I was eleven.” Gavin says quietly. “First time I did it for money was just after I turned fifteen, for some guy who wanted to break into a corporate building.”

“What. The. Fuck.” Geoff says after a moment of stunned silence. “How did you learn to do that?”

“My uncle taught me some stuff.” Gavin explains, “The rest of it I learned on the internet, or by guessing. Hacking’s just something I’ve always been good at. That, and not much else.”

Geoff shakes his head.

“Well that’s one hell of a talent, either way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had originally planned to have this storyline be at least two different fics, mostly because I want to tell certain parts I have planned from to perspective of characters who aren't Jackie. The problem is, I can't figure out where to make a clean break from 'part 1' to 'part 2', so I may just do the whole thing as one fic? Does anybody have a preference one way or another?


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin settles in, and shit starts getting real between fake ah and the crimson pirates.

Gavin settles in amazingly quickly, making instant friends with Ray and Michael. When they introduce him to video games, he claims he’s never played before, then proceeds to beat the other two men several times in a row with the apparent ease of someone talking a casual afternoon stroll.

It does quickly become clear, however, that his talent with technology doesn’t translate to other aspects of life.

For one thing, Gavin can’t cook to save his life. Probably literally. He tries to make them all pasta one night, but gets distracted and lets the water boil away until the noodles are a hard, congealed lump at the bottom of the saucepan. After the third time this happens, Gavin is officially banned from kitchen duty.

For a guy who can hold the purpose and location of twenty lines of code in his head at once, he’s also appallingly terrible at keeping track of his real life possessions. He loses his glasses on his face, his phone in his pocket, and his coat because it’s in the hall closet where it’s supposed to be. If there’s a possession of Gavin’s that isn’t tied or bolted down, it’s only a matter of when, not if, it will vanish mysteriously and prompt a wild goose chase that inevitably ends with someone shaking their head and sighing, “Really, Gavin?”

After the first week, they start keeping a tally of how many times Gavin has lost his toothbrush, and when they hit the two month mark, the tally is at twenty-one.

Still, in those two months, Gavin has come to feel like just as much a part of the team as the rest of them, as if he’s been there all along.

As it turns out, it’s incredibly useful to have a hacker who works exclusively for them, and can do so in real time. This opens up a whole new set of jobs that have previously been off limits due to security, which Gavin takes absolute pleasure in disabling.

Gavin’s skills also come in incredibly handy to combat the ever-increasing threat from the Crimson Pirates, who seem to have taken Ray recovering the full use of his arm as a personal offense. It’s mostly little things at first, intercepting supplies, trashing vehicles, and with Gavin’s help they’re able to push back just as hard.

At least, until they get to one of Geoff’s contacts.

They actually arrive at the mechanic’s shop to pick up their cars, for once doing legitimate business with the man, but he’s nowhere to be found in the garage. Geoff frowns when they try to call him and only hear the phone ringing endlessly in the distance.

Gavin guards the door while Geoff and Ray spread out into the building in one direction, Jackie and Michael in the other. Two minutes later, Jackie’s cell phone rings. All Geoff says is,

“We found him.”

Gavin’s sitting in the hall outside when they arrive, face white and hands shaking.

“Fuck.” Michael says when they walk into the room, eyes going wide. “Fuck. Motherfucking shit.”

Geoff only nods.

The man is sprawled on the floor of his office, blood still oozing sluggishly from a wound in the back of his head. A red-spattered tire-iron sits next to him, artfully placed to look as if carelessly dropped there. The image is like something straight out of a fifties mobster film, so cliche it’s almost funny, except that it’s very, very not.

A work calendar lays open on his desk, the slot for their appointment circled in bright red ink, and next to it scrawled the symbol of a skull and crossbones. It’s not exactly subtle, but it doesn’t have to bed to get the message across.

“Fuck this.” Geoff says, shaking his head. “I’m done playing fucking defense to these assholes. We’re not just gonna retaliate anymore. We’ll hit them first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Here's my customary apology for taking so long to update, and the next chapter. Thanks also for the input on what to do with formatting the story. I think what I'll end up doing is just writing the whole thing from Jackie's perspective, then going back and doing the specific part I wanted to tell from other perspectives in a separate story. As always, I can't promise speedy updates, but I do promise that no matter how long it takes me, I will always update eventually. I do genuinely enjoy writing this story, even if I don't always have the time. Thanks so much to everyone for their support, you make sharing my stories fun! :)


	16. Chapter 16

Three weeks later, Gavin comes to them with the pièce de résistance.

He’s located a warehouse on the edge of the Pirate’s territory that’s vulnerable. It’s not a main base by any means, but it’s still an outpost, one that will be a huge victory for them if they can take it. Which, naturally, is exactly what they plan to do.

It’s tricky though, because they don’t just want to destroy the place. They want to take it for their own, which means no explosives, to Michael’s great disappointment. Geoff consoles him with the promise of a bank robbery as their next job, complete with a nice cozy vault just waiting to be blasted open. Michael grudgingly agrees. 

On the morning of their planned attack, they set out just before dawn, pulling up a few blocks from the warehouse as the sky begins to turn pale blue in earnest.

Geoff hands out earpieces, then draws close to Michael and Jackie as Ray heads off to get into position on the roof of a nearby building.

“Alright.” He says into his earpiece, so that Ray and Gavin (back at the base on his computer) can hear as well. “This is it, guys. We’ve planned every detail of this. We’ve gone over it, and over it, and over it, and we’re finally here. This is the real shit. Everything may not go according to plan, in fact it probably won’t, but when in doubt, stick to the plan. More importantly, stick to each other. Trust each other. The only way we win here today, is together. As a team, understand?”

“Yeah, coach.” Michael pats Geoff on the shoulder. “Good pre-game pep talk. Now let’s kick some Crimson Pirate ass!” 

Geoff shrugs.

“Fair enough. Everybody ready? Good. Let’s move in.”

They spread out and move towards the warehouse, guns drawn. Each of the four takes a different route, that way if they’re spotted, they’re hopefully spotted one at a time.

It’s a good thing too, because the moment Jackie sets foot on the gravel inside the compound, she hears a voice from behind her and the sound of a gun cocking.

“Stop.”

Fuck.

She stops.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I’m--”

“Not supposed to be here, is what you are.” The man circles her, gun still pointed at her head. “And what I wanna know is, if you’re not supposed to be here, why the Hell are you?”

Jackie doesn’t even have time to open her mouth for a reply before Michael steps out from behind a crumbling brick wall and shoots the man square in the face.

“That’s for Ray’s arm, you piece of shit!”

There is a moment of silence before the comm crackles and Ray says,

“Seriously, man? You’re still mad about that?”

“Still ma-- Of course I’m still mad about it!” Michael shoots back. “You could have lost your arm! You could have died! That’s what they wanted! They were trying to kill you!”

“Yeah, but they didn’t. Besides, it was months ago."

“That’s not the point!”

“Boys!” Jackie says loudly, making the comm squeak a little with feedback. She sees Geoff wince. “While I can appreciate both sides of the argument, this is really, _really_ not the time.”

“Right.” Michael says after a moment’s pause. “Sorry, I just… Fuck, man. Nobody shoots my friends and gets away with it.”

\--

Two hours of brutal standoff later, Jackie, Geoff, and Michael are hugging in the center of the warehouse, bodies strewn around them, blood soaking their clothes.

There’s a knock on the doorframe as Ray steps in, grinning from ear to ear.

“Room for one more?”

“You bet there is!” Geoff gushes, pulling Ray into the group and ruffling his hair. “C’mere, you.”

After a few more rounds of celebratory whooping, the four head back to base, where Gavin insists that they all shower before hugging him as well.

Once they’re all cleaned up, they sit together in front of the television in only their underwear, eating chips and taking turns playing video games.

All in all, it’s been a good day for the Fake AH Crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm still working on rearranging some stuff, but I wanted to get at least one new chapter up since it's been so long. If anyone is still actively reading this, please let me know so I can gauge where on my to-do list to place it.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan is finally here!

But of course, things don’t stay perfect for long.

The Crimson Pirates are naturally upset about having even a minor base taken from them, and their retaliation is as swift as it is thorough.

There is no attempt to recapture the warehouse, but by the third morning after the place changed hands, at least half of Geoff’s contacts are mysteriously refusing to speak to him. No one will explain either, until finally a terrified whisper over the phone provides some insight.

“The Pirates, they-- they sent their people around my place last night. Said if they caught me selling you so much as a pack of cigarettes, they’d make life miserable for me and mine. I’m sorry, Geoff, but I’ve got a family. I’ve got kids. I can’t risk it.”

“Fuck.” Geoff breathes once he’s hung up. “Fuck, they fucked us. They really fucking fucked us.”

“That’s a whole lot of ‘fuck’.” Ray points out.

“Yeah.” Geoff agrees morosely. “Because we’re fucked.”

“No we’re not.” Jackie says from the kitchen, drawing everyone else’s attention. “Not permenantly, anyway. Yeah, they got us bad, but we just need to lay low for a while. Play beaten. Play satisfied with what we’ve got, with being small time. Then, when they’ve let their guard down, we hit ‘em hard where it hurts.”

Geoff is staring at her with open pride on his face.

“That’s brilliant.” He stands up and walks over to her, pulling her into a tight hug. “Have I mentioned lately that I fucking love you?”

“Once or twice.” Jackie says, laughing.

Michael rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, real cute, Mom and Dad. But I seem to remember somebody promising me a bank job?”

\--

They do Michael’s bank job, as promised, then tone it down even further. For a while they’re back to gas stations, a few jewelry stores, and the occasional personal property. Nothing too flashy, nothing that will make front page news, nothing that requires large amount of weapons or money, and no drug deals besides some pot here and there.

About two months into this new, covert operation, the five of them are lounging around Geoff’s living room, reading and playing video games, when the doorbell rings.

Everyone freezes.

Jackie is the first to speak.

“Did you invite someone over, Geoff?”

Geoff shakes his head mutely. Jackie turns to look at the other three, but they are also shaking their heads.

The doorbell rings again, followed by a silence just as loud and jarring. Finally, Gavin says,

“Uh, maybe someone should answer it…?”

There is another beat of silence before Geoff clears his throat and starts to stand. “Right, I should, um…”

He walks stiffly to the door and peers through the peep-hole.

“Fuck. Shit. It's some psycho in a mask. _Fuck_.”

Just as Jackie opens her mouth to suggest letting him think they're not home, the doorbell rings a third time.

“He knows we’re here.” Gavin whispers fearfully.

Geoff takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders, expression grim. “I'm gonna open it. Be ready.”

Jackie nods, already having drawn her gun, and points the weapon at the door. She and Geoff exchange a nod before he twists the knob and pulls it open.

The man on the porch is tall with a solid build, and that's about all Jackie can tell about him. The mask on his face, in the shape of a skull, obscures all his other features. When he sees Jackie, he raises both hands into the air, palms out.

“Easy.” His voice is oddly normal sounding, neither fitting nor at odds with his appearance. “I'm not here to hurt anyone.”

“Really?” Michael asks, his voice squeaking a bit. “You show up unannounced, to a place that's supposed to be secret, dressed like _that_ , and you expect us to believe you just wanna talk?”

“I do.” The man insists. “My name is Ryan. I have… a proposition for you.”

After a moment of tense silence, Geoff speaks. “Alright, come in. But keep your hands where we can see them.”

Ryan’s shoulders lift and drop in a way that suggests an exasperated sigh, but he nods and steps carefully inside, hands up. Geoff leads him to the dining room table. 

“Sit. Hands on the table. Don't even think about moving 'em.”

Once Ryan has seated himself, Geoff gestures for everyone else to come sit at the table as well.


	18. Chapter 18

“So, Ryan.” Geoff says with interest. “Let's hear this ‘proposition’ of yours.”

“I've been watching you.” Ryan says evenly. “You're good. I think you've got a decent chance of taking down the Crimson Pirates. Or at least doing some serious damage.”

Geoff frowns a little.

“Not that we don't appreciate the compliment, but what exactly is your point?”

“I'd like to help you.”

“I'm sorry?”

Ryan leans forward a little.

“You're going after the Pirates, yes?”

“Ideally, yeah...” 

“Good. Then I want in. And in return I can offer you information, as well as my own skills.”

“Which are?”

“Killing people, mostly.” Ryan says with a shrug.

“Right…” Geoff sighs. “Of course they are. So… Let me see if I have this straight. You want to join my crew so that you can be part of taking down the Crimson Pirates?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Ryan tenses visibly.

“Personal reasons.”

Jackie laughs a little.

“So revenge, then?”

“I suppose so.” Ryan answers her.

“Right.” Geoff says. “But you understand we don't just exist to take down the Pirates, right? Believe me, we’ve got plenty of reasons to want ‘em gone, some that are pretty ‘personal’ too, but it’s not our only goal. If you're in, we need you to be in one-hundred percent, for everything.”

Ryan nods.

“I understand. I can't promise I'll stick around once the Pirates are gone, but until then I'm in all the way.”

“Okay.” Geoff agrees, looking around at the others. “What do you all think?”

Gavin speaks first.

“If he's got the kind of information he says he does, this could be big. Really big.”

Geoff nods in acknowledgement.

“I have a question.” Michael says, adding when Geoff gestures for him to continue, “What's with the mask?”

“Anonymity is a powerful tool in our line of work.” Ryan answers.

Michael frowns.

“See, I knew you'd come back with some cryptic bullshit like that.”

Ryan sighs audibly.

“Is it really so hard to understand? The less people can recognize my face, the less I have to worry about being double crossed.”

“So you don't trust us?”

“I don't trust anyone. On principle. It's nothing personal.”

Michael shakes his head.

“I dunno if I can work with you like that. If you don't even trust me to look at your fucking face, how can you expect me to trust you not to put a bullet in my skull when no one’s looking?”

“I’m not going to to kill you.” Ryan scoffs, shaking his head. “Even if I was a murderous psychopath, which I’m not, by the way, I wouldn’t go through all this work just to kill you. Besides, I need you alive so you can help me take out the Pirates.”

“And you just expect us to believe you?”

“I suppose you’ll have to.” Ryan shrugs. “Or at least put up with me. And I know you will.”

“Do you? And why’s that?”

“Because I can help you kill the bastard who shot your friend Ray.”

Michael stares at him for a long moment.

“Fine. My vote’s for letting him in.”

“Hey!” Ray protests indignantly, “I’m not a bargaining chip!”

“Of course not.” Michael agrees. “But the son of a bitch who shot you is.”

“Whatever.” Ray says, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, this guy seems useful. And we’ve got the same goal, so it only makes sense to work together.”  
Geoff turns to look at Jackie, who gives him a nod and lowers her gun.

“Right.” Geoff says, looking back over at Ryan. “Guess you’re in, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter was reeeeally late, I've been super stressed lately from school but hopefully I shouldn't be getting quite as much work for the rest of the term. Thanks everyone for being patient and continuing to read!


	19. Chapter 19

As it turns out, having Ryan as a part of the crew is a lot better than anticipated.

Not only does he deliver the promised wealth of information on the Crimson Pirates, but he’s also extremely useful on a job, an excellent strategist and gunman, not to mention that the mask makes him more or less the most intimidating person in town.

For the first month or so, Ryan is only ever present for jobs, where he is all business, but slowly he starts occasionally following the rest back to base afterwards, mostly just watching movies silently or giving people the odd piece of strategy as he watches them game.

About six weeks in, Ray convinces Ryan to play with him and Michael, although Ryan insists he’s never done it before.

It takes him a round or two to get used to the controller, after which he immediately becomes more than a match for both of the other men.

Michael looks at him accusingly.

“I thought you said you’d never played!”

“I haven’t.” Ryan insists.

“Yeah right.” Michael scoffs. “No one's that good without a lot of practice.”

Ryan shrugs.

“I’m a quick learner.”

A fight is only narrowly averted by Geoff shouting from the kitchen that dinner is ready.

At this announcement, Ryan is on his feet immediately.

“I should go.”

“Nah, you can stay.” Ray tells him. “Michael's not that mad at you.”

But Ryan shakes his head.

“No, I… Thanks, but I really should go.”

Ray and Michael both watch him leave, frowning.

“What was all that about?” Ray asks finally.

Michael shrugs.

“Beats me.”

“I think it’s the mask.” Gavin says quietly from the couch. “He’d have to take it off, you know? To eat?”

“Ugh.” Michael groans. “Eight jobs together and that asshole still doesn’t trust us?”

“He doesn’t exactly seem like the ‘trust easily’ type.” Ray says, and hand on Michael’s arm. “Maybe he just needs time. Maybe… Maybe somebody hurt him, or something. Someone he trusted, and he’s scared.”

Michael makes a noise of disbelief.

“He doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of guy who scares easily, either. I don’t think I’ve seen him so much as flinch in the month and a half we’ve known him.”

“One way or another, he’s definitely hiding something.” Jackie points out.

Geoff pokes his head into the living room.

“Come on guys, dinner-- Where’s Ryan?”

“He left.” Michael huffs. “Ran off the minute you said dinner was ready.”

Geoff frowns.

“Well that’s odd. Did he say anything about why?”

“Gavin thinks he didn’t want to take his mask off.” Ray points out.

“He is pretty damn stubborn about that.” Geoff agrees. “Tried to ask him about it last week, and he seemed almost scared.”

“Told you!” Ray says with a look at Michael.

Michael sighs.

“Do you think it’s something we should be worried about?”

“I don’t know.” Geoff says, shaking his head. “It’s certainly a mystery, and we’d do best to see if we can pick up clues, but I don’t want anyone acting suspicious. The last thing we need is Ryan thinking we don’t trust him.”

“He clearly doesn’t trust us.” Michael insists. “He can’t get around that.”

“Maybe he’s got an injury.” Gavin says suddenly. “Y’know, like a really scary scar, or a missing eye or something. And he’s just worried we’ll think he’s scary looking.”

“Nah.” Geoff shakes his head after a moment. “That kinda thing only happens in stories.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how I said last chapter "I don't think I'll have much more work this term"? I think I cursed myself, because turns out a had a lot of work. Rest assured however that I will continue updating whenever possible! Sorry to make you all wait so long between chapters, but I promise they will keep coming, even if it's slowly.


	20. Chapter 20

Four months after Ryan joins them, the team makes the mutual decision that they’ve lain low for long enough.

With help from Ryan’s intel, Gavin has information that the Crimson Pirates are planning a big job, a vault on the seventeenth floor of a corporate building in the center of town. So far they haven’t been able to find out what’s in the vault, they’re not sure if even the Crimson Pirates know, but they know it’s got to be valuable.

They have a meeting around the dining room table, Gavin spreading out maps and charts across it’s surface.

“Okay.” Michael says, eager as ever to get back into the action. “What’s the plan?”

“It was actually Ray and Gavin’s idea.” Geoff says, grinning proudly. “So I’ll let them tell you. Take it away, boys.”

“Right.” Gavin nods, all business for once. “So this is the only time we’ll have to element of surprise on our hands for pretty much the forseable future. We gotta make it big. We want something that will really get these assholes. We could easily sabotage their plan somehow, send an anonymous tip to the police, sabotage some of the equipment they’ll need, something like that, but that won’t make a very big statement.”

“What’ll really piss them of.” Ray continues, a smile spreading across his face, "Is if we do exactly what they were gonna do, only better, and more importantly, first.”

“Steal their prize…” Ryan says, nodding. It’s hard to see his expression under the mask, but he seems pleased. “Not a bad plan. But can we actually pull it off?”

“It’s not as hard as it sounds.” Gavin gestures to the maps around them. “After all, they’ve done the groundwork for us.”

“ _Shit_.” Michael says, laughing. “Oh, that is _so_ good! I love it!”

“It’s an excellent plan.” Jackie agrees. “Let’s make it happen.”

\---

And make it happen they do.

It takes three weeks of focused preparation, of memorizing routes and codes, building special tools, scoping out the area. Michael builds his creations with the most care Jackie has ever seen him use, measuring and re-measuring ingredients, until he has just the right amount of everything. Gavin researches every detail of the security systems, trying to teach the rest of them the most important parts. They can’t afford to miss a single detail.

Two days before the plan is to be put in motion, they all sit around the dining room table, everyone eating except Ryan, who insisted he wasn’t hungry.

“Okay.” Geoff says slowly. “We can do this. I really think we can. We’re ready.”

Ray sighs, stirring his food nervously with his fork.

“I dunno. I mean, I know this was mine and Gavin’s idea and everything but I just… there’s so much that could go wrong…”

“Your right.” Gavin agreed. “Maybe… Maybe this was too ambitious, it’s not too late to change our minds…”

“No way!” Michael says firmly. “We can do this! Your plan is awesome, we’ve all worked really hard… it’s gonna work.”

“I mean… probably.” Gavin says hesitantly. “But if it doesn’t, it could go really, really bad. Like, going to jail for the rest of our lives bad. Maybe even dying. Even if everything goes perfectly, we’re still pretty much inviting retaliation from the Pirates…”

“We can do this.” Jackie says, setting down her fork and looking around at everyone with a serious expression. “Like Michael said, it’s a good plan, and we’ve all worked hard. But even beyond that, we’ll be in there together. We’ve got each other, as a team. If something goes wrong, we’ll adapt, we’ll work together, we’ll take care of each other. That’s what makes us good. We can rely on each other. We’re a family.”

Everyone nods around the table, renewed determination in their expressions, although Michael does sneak a sideways glance at Ryan.

“You’re right.” Ray says, putting a hand on Gavin’s shoulder and squeezing it. “We’ve got this.”

“Hell yeah.” Michael agrees, grinning. “We’re gonna kick their asses.”

It takes everyone a few seconds to realize that the sound of soft laughter is coming from Ryan’s end of the table. He nods when they all look at him and speaks with a smile in his voice.

“You all are really something else. I think I made a good choice.”


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

The evening of the job they leave base in two separate cars, about two hours apart. Gavin, Ryan, and Michael go first in a beat up old van, the back carrying two large sacks which contain everyone’s weapons wrapped in layers of cloth.

They pull up around the back of the building and Gavin and Michael get out to haul the ‘clean laundry’ inside, both wearing the uniforms of a local cleaning service. Once they’ve gained entry into the building, they let Ryan, whose mask makes him a bit more conspicuous, in through a service door.

In the second car, sleek, black, high end but not ostentatious, Geoff, Jackie, and Ray arrive, all dressed in neatly pressed business clothes. Geoff has set himself up as a local investor, with Jackie standing in for his secretary and Ray an eager intern whom Geoff has agreed to show around the city. All rather stereotypical roles, but that’s exactly why they work.

The story gets them in easily, and now it’s a waiting game.

They all meet up in a maintenance shaft off of the loading dock to set up their weapons, change clothes, and go over the plan one more time. This area also gives Gavin access to the security systems, meaning that he is able to patch himself in inconspicuously and monitor the cameras and alarm systems. By the time they have everything set up, it’s almost eleven at night, which means two and a half more hours until they’re ready to spring into action.

They know from the combined research of Gavin and the Pirates that this building is least busy between one and five in the morning, which gives them four hours to do everything they need. Plenty of time. Or at least, it should be, if everything goes according to plan.

When one AM arrives, Jackie, Ryan, Michael, and Geoff all pile out of the maintenance tunnel back into the loading dock and start to head upstairs.

Ray stays behind with Gavin, a precaution in case they get cornered, since Gavin can’t exactly track the security systems and defend himself at the same time. Plus, if they have to adapt, Ray knows the plan better than anyone save Gavin. They’re the ones who came up with it, after all.

Both of the younger men are more used to being stationed outside the building on jobs, although this isn’t the first time they’ve gone in with the rest, and Jackie can tell they’re nervous.

She gives them both an encouraging smile as she jumps down a foot or so back into the loading dock.

“You guys are gonna do great. See you on the other side.”

“We got it.” Ray assures her, with a smile that manages to be both nervous and exasperated. “Now go kick ass.”

Jackie winks back at him before heading after the others.

“Roger that.” She says through her radio.

\---

The trek to the seventeenth floor is relatively uneventful, as they expected it to be.

Only once do they have to freeze in the stairwell as they hear footsteps above them, but it turns out to be nothing more than a late night employee on his was to a vending machine. He only goes down one flight of stairs, missing them completely.

Once they reach floor seventeen, they have to gain entry with a copy of a keycard that Gavin managed to snatch, scan, and return without it’s owner ever noticing. They’d just planted it back in the man’s car, and he’d assumed he’d forgotten it.

Gavin assures them there are no workers still up on this floor, although as expected there are two guards stationed outside the vault.  
Jackie makes a noise over in the far corner, and while one guard goes to investigate, Geoff and Ryan sneak up on the other. The idea is to take both down at the same time, so they can’t sound an alarm.

It doesn’t work exactly as planned, but they do get the guards down and there are no screams or gunshots, so unless there is someone on the floor right above or below them, they should be fine.

It’s not exactly the world’s most comfortable thought, but it’ll have to do for now. The best they can do is move forward and concentrate on opening the vault.

Unfortunately, that is going to be far from easy.

For the last month, Gavin has been studying every scrap of information he could find on how to bypass the security on the door, but they still don’t know exactly how it works. Chances are there will be some guessing involved.

Jackie takes a deep breath as she steps forwards.

“Okay Gavin, we’re here. What’s step one?”

“Scan the keycard on the thing with the red flashing light.” Gavin explains. “The one on the middle right of the doorframe.”

Jackie spots the device in question and scans the card.

There is a soft beep, and a panel containing a keyboard opens up. Gavin gives her the code, which she inputs carefully.

It first, nothing happens. They all stand frozen, waiting for alarms to blare, for guns to drop from the ceiling and start firing, for _something_ …

Then there is a soft sound of gears and hydraulic machines straining, and the door begins to slows roll open.

“Okay.” Gavin says through the radio. “That’s door one taken care of. Just two more.”


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to apologize in advance for my non-existent knowledge of hacking, what little I do know was more or less taken directly from the movie National Treasure, so I'm sure it's grossly inaccurate, but my online research didn't turn up much. Sorry guys.

The next door is the one they’ve been worrying about the most, Gavin’s research has turned up next to nothing on it’s workings or how to disable it.

To make matters worse, even once the door is revealed, there is no clear mechanism to gain entry. No scanners, no keypads, nothing.

Geoff frowns as he relays the situation to Gavin.

“Ideas?”

“Yeah.” Gavin’s voice says through the radio. “I’m gonna try to disable it remotely from here. There’s a pretty good chance that will activate secondary security protocols, but I can’t really think of another way to go about this.”

Geoff looks around at the others.

“Any objections?” When everyone shakes their heads, he nods and speaks into the radio. “Do it.”

The next fifteen minutes or so are tense but uneventful, the only sound Gavin swearing under his breath through the radio as he runs into obstacles.

Finally, he speaks up again.

“I think I got it. Let me know if anything happens.”

The sound of clicking keys comes over the radio, then the heavy silence of anticipation.

“Anything?” Gavin asks hopefully after about thirty seconds.

“No.” Jackie tells him through the radio. “Sorry.”

Gavin mutters a string of curses, a few of which Jackie has a suspicion he has just invented.

“Okay, hang on, just-- just give me another minute.”

They all wait a few more minutes, then a loud buzzer sounds from somewhere inside the vault.

“Um, Gavin?” Michael asks nervously. “What was that?”

“Fuck, sorry.” Gavin mutters. “Okay, I think I’ve got it for real this time.”

There is a clunk from the mechanism behind the door, which suddenly shoots up and out of the way, startling everyone.

“Did it work?” Gavin asks.

“Y-Yeah.” Jackie tell him. “What next?”

“The third door should need a password.” Gavin explains. “According to the files I pulled off the Pirates network, the password is ‘Europa’, but it seems to want an eight-letter password now.”

Sure enough, there is a small, alphabetical keyboard set into the door.

“Do you have any idea what the new password is?” Jackie asks.

“No.” Gavin says after a moment. “But you might be able to check for fingerprints on the console. “Jackie, you should have the supplies for that.”

“Right.” Jackie nods, remembering and reaching into her bag for a small blacklight, a makeup brush, and a baggie of bright yellow powder.

“Are we seriously dusting for fingerprints?” Michael asks, raising an eyebrow. “I feel like I’m in some shitty, direct to DVD crime movie.”

“Fingerprinting can be useful in these situations.” Gavin insists.

Michael shrugs.

“If you say so. I’m just wondering when Jackie had time to become a forensics expert behind all of our backs.”

“I, uh, I didn’t…” Jackie says quietly. “I’ve never done this before.”

“Okay... “ Michael sighs, shaking his head. “But you’ve seen this work before, right Gavin?”

There is a long silence.

“Uh…” Gavin says through the radio. “Not exactly. But it should work, the principles make sense. Just try it, Jackie.”

Jackie nods, dusting the powder over the console before switching on the blacklight and shining it over the letters. Sure enough, faint smudges of fingerprints start to glow.

“Holy shit.” Michael says, looking over Jackie’s shoulder. “It seriously worked.”

“Okay, read me the letters.” Gavin directs them.

“Right.” Jackie nods. “Okay, um, E, R, T, U, I, O, P, A, S, L, C.”

“Shit.” Gavin mumbles. “The letters from Europa are all in that, so there’s a good chance some of the prints are pretty old. “Okay, um… The new letters are T, I, S, L, and C. So those are definitely in the new password, probably plus some, but not all of the leftover letters from Europa.”

“Shit.” Geoff says, echoing Gavin. “So now what? We just guess?”

“Kinda.” Gavin answers, sounding apologetic. “I have a program that does anagrams though, that should speed things up, just give me a sec…” There is a pause over the radio, then, “Okay, so it’s giving me about thirty possibilities… um, hang on, let me filter out the plurals, most people don’t use those for passwords… I’ll take out superlatives too… okay. That leaves, cloister, colorist, cortisol, occultist, and solstice.”

There is a long silence.

“Well how the hell do we know which one of those it is?” Michael asks finally.

“We guess.” Jackie sighs. “Colorist and cortisol are both pretty obscure… and I certainly wouldn’t use ‘occultist’ as my password, but that doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t…”

“Cloister would make the most sense.” Ray chimes in over the radio. “Y’know, cause as a verb it means ‘to lock away’, and it’s a vault?”

“That’s… a really good point.” Geoff nods. “There’s nothing for it anyway, let’s give it a try.”

Jackie nods, takes a deep breath, and types in the word.

There is a long, heavy pause as the computer processes the password, then a buzzer sounds and the screen of the little console flashes with red words.

‘Password incorrect. Warning: after two more attempts, system will automatically go into lockdown mode and must be reset by manufacturer.”

“Fuck.” Jackie breathes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, sorry it took so long to update. School has really been kicking my ass this term. The next chapter is already started though, so hopefully I'll be able to get it up in a reasonable time-frame and not make you all wait three weeks like I did this time.


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should really stop saying "I think I can get the next chapter up quickly" because I seem to be cursing myself every time I do it. So... I DEFINITELY will NOT be able to get the next chapter up soon...

They all stand in silence for a good few moments after the warning message. Two more guesses. They only have two more guesses between success and failure, and their most logical option is now off the table. It’s not a great feeling.

“Did ‘cloister’ not work?” Ray asks anxiously over the radio. “I’m so sorry, guys...”

“It’s not your fault.” Geoff assures him. “You guessed better than any of us could.”

Michael runs his hands through his hair in frustration.

“But if it’s not that, then what the fuck is it?”

“Um… Maybe Solstice?” Jackie offers. “That sounds like the next most likely.”

“And it would fit with the other password.” Geoff says suddenly. “Europa is some sort of space thing, so…”

“Callisto.”

Everyone turns to stare at Ryan, who has spoken for the first time in nearly forty minutes. Jackie had almost forgotten he was there.

“What?” She asks him after a moment’s pause.

“Callisto.” Ryan repeats. “It’s one of the moons of Jupiter. So is Europa.”

“He’s right.” Michael says, nodding. “And it’s got all the letters.”

“But it’s not on Gavin’s list.” Ray argues. 

“Because it’s a proper noun.” Gavin says after a moment, sounding incredibly irritated. “Useless piece of shit program. It’s _built_ for decryption and it doesn’t even take proper goddamn nouns into account? I knew I should have stuck with what I had before…”

There is silence again as everyone listens to Gavin mutter irritably over the radio.

“Okay…” Geoff says after a moment. “So, uh… should we try ‘Callisto’, then?”

“I don’t know…” Michael says hesitantly. “I mean, we only get two more shots, if we fuck it up this time…”

“What choice do we have?” Jackie points out. “Like Geoff said last time, sitting here isn’t going to give us any more information. If we don’t enter anything, we’re definitely not getting in.”

Michael growls softly in frustration, but nods.

“Okay, just do it I guess…”

Jackie nods, typing the word into the console again and holding her breath as it processes.

After what is barely more than a second but feels like an eternity, the screen startles everyone with a loud beep before displaying green words this time.

“Password correct. Entry permitted.”

“Oh.” Jackie says quietly. “Uh, it-- it worked.”

“Shit, really?” Geoff asks, coming up behind her to see for himself as the door starts to slide open.

At first, Jackie thinks the vault is just filled with stacks of bills, like a bank vault. That would make sense, she supposes, and would be terribly convenient for them. But of course it’s not that easy.

There are stacks and stacks of small wrapped packages, about the size and shape of wads of money, but why would money be wrapped in butcher paper and plastic, and stamped with a logo none of them recognize?

All four of them stand staring.

“Um…” Michael says after a moment. “What the fuck?”

“What is this?” Jackie asks, frowning.

“Uh… C-4?” Michael says, sounding like he doesn’t think that suggestion is very likely.

The walkie-talkie in Jackie’s hand crackles, and she hears Ray’s distorted voice say,

“Guys? What’s going on up there?”

“Fuck.” Geoff says quietly. “Motherfucking shit.”

Jackie turns to look at him, and the expression on his face says he knows exactly what’s going on, and it isn’t good. But in the end it’s Ryan who informs the rest of them of just exactly how much trouble they’re in, his voice sounding hollow, almost defeated, for the first time since Jackie had met him.

“It’s coke. There’s nothing in here but fucking cocaine.”


	24. Chapter 24

There is a long, heavy silence before Michael finally speaks.

“So? I mean, I gotta admit I don’t feel great about dealing coke on like, a personal, moral level, but… It’s not like we failed, right? We still found something worth a _huge_ amount of money.”

Ray’s hollow laughter sounds even more insincere filtered through the radio static.

“Right, and we’re gonna sell it to who, exactly? With what power and influence?”

“He’s right.” Geoff sighs. “We don’t have anything close to the kind of operation needed to move something like this. We’ll either end up in prison or dead in a ditch somewhere after someone decides they can keep their money _and_ their purchase.”

“We can’t handle anything like this.” Ryan sighs. “But the Pirates can. Their operation is perfect for this kind of thing.”

“Fuck.” Michael says softly. “Guess we fucked up, huh?”

“Sorry.” Says Gavin’s voice over the radio, uncharacteristically quiet.

Silence settles over the group again.

“No.” Jackie says firmly, making the others turn to look at her. “We may not be able to do what we came to do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything.”

Geoff raises an eyebrow at her.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we get the fuck out of here, and then we call the police.”

“What?” Michael frowns at her. “Why would _we_ call the police? You _do_ know we’re criminals, right?”

“We can send an anonymous tip.” Ryan explains, and Jackie nods. “If we can’t take the Pirate’s prize, we can at least we can make sure they don’t get it either.”

“And having whoever they send for this job ambushed by police will hurt them pretty badly too.” Goeff points out.

“But they won’t know it was us, right?” Ray asks through the radio. “Wasn’t that kind of the point of this?”

“It’s definitely not the dramatic comeback we were hoping for.” Geoff agrees. “But it’s something. And right now, I think ‘something’ is about as close as we’re gonna get.”

“Yeah.” Gavin says from the other end of the radio. “That’s probably our best bet. And making sure our tip isn’t traceable shouldn’t be too hard.”

They all stand there for a few moments in silence, before Geoff says.

“Well, um, I suppose we should head out, then… Gavin, can you close the doors back up?”

“Yeah.” Gavin says through the radio. “Just give me five minutes.”

\---

It’s certainly not the triumphant return they had planned, but they make it home without incident. 

Everyone is quiet on the car ride back, and once they arrive they simply sit in Geoff’s living room in silence, until Ray decides to order pizza. There are tacit nods all around and a subdued discussion about topping choices, which Ryan quickly excuses himself from and heads out.

When the pizza arrives they don’t bother to move to the dining room but simply sit around the coffee table on the couch and carpet, lost in thought as everyone eats. What they’ve just experienced is technically a victory, but it sure doesn’t feel like one.

Geoff takes their plates to the sink when they’re finished, returns to the room, sits down on the couch, and sighs.

“Alright, you know what? Fuck this. We set out to fuck over the Pirates, and that’s what we’ll do. This part wasn’t as successful as we hoped, but it still worked. We all made it in and out alive. None of us got arrested. It could have gone a hell of a lot worse. We’ll get the Pirates next time. For now, I think we deserve to celebrate. We didn’t have an incredible success, but we did fucking okay, and that’s good enough for now.”

Jackie smiles, looking around at the others who also seem bolstered by this speech.

“Thanks.” Gavin said quietly, staring into his lap. “I’m sorry we screwed up so bad.”

Geoff frowns.

“You didn’t screw up. None of us screwed up.”

“I mean, it _was_ Gavin’s and my plan..” Ray says quietly.

“No.” Geoff repeats. “The circumstances were shitty. That’s it. It was a fantastic plan.”

“Really?” Gavin asks hopefully. “We didn’t, like... disappoint you?”

“What?” Geoff laughs. “You could never disappoint me. You’re my boys.”

Gavin finally looks up, looking a little tearful as he smiles at Geoff in return.

“Thanks.”


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't exactly a timely update, but on the plus side I've finally got a very basic outline of the rest of the story, and it's looking like about 40 chapters total, so we're getting there!
> 
> This week, the boys experience a strange coincidence! Or is it?

Everyone feels a bit better a week later, when they see four members of the Crimson Pirates arrested on live TV. Plan A may have failed in a major way, but at least Plan B was effective in it’s place.

The next day the names and records of the four are sent out on the morning news, along with mugshots and pictures of each’s left shoulder, where the skull and crossbones mark of the Crimson Pirates is tattooed in black ink.

After that the general apathetic atmosphere that settled after their return quickly dissipates.

Geoff is the most active participant in this, encouraging the others with new plans, offers to play games (or sometimes challenges), and ordering out from wherever seems to strike his fancy.

Two weeks after the news announcement, the crew minus Ryan is chatting happily over Chinese food when the doorbell rings.

Everyone stares at each other.

“It can’t be Ryan.” Ray says, frowning. “He said he’d be out of town for a few days.”

“Then who the fuck is it?” Michael asks, raising an eyebrow. He stands up and heads for the door. “If it’s another mysterious masked weirdo, I swear to God…”

Michael looks through the peephole, tenses, backs away, and stares at the door as if it has just burst into flames.

“Well?” Jackie prompts eventually.

“I think I just jinxed us.” Michael whispers. “It’s a fucking cop.”

A series of whispered curses makes it’s way around the table.

“Alright.” Geoff says, standing up. “We don’t know that he’s here for us. Could just be asking around the neighborhood after someone else. Everybody calm down. Guns away, nice and friendly. With any luck we can bluff our way through this.”

Gavin bites his lip.

“But what if--”

He is cut off as the doorbell rings again.

“Doesn’t look like there’s much of a choice.” Ray says grimly.

A quick scramble to hide anything incriminating ensues, before the doorbell rings again, twice in succession, and Geoff hurries to answer the door, everyone else taking their places back at the table and trying to look normal.

On the step stands a tall, uniformed man with a sturdy build and dark hair just long enough to be pulled back into a small ponytail. His face is kind, but his eyes betray an intelligent mind, annotating and analysing, not missing a thing. It’s a face perfectly suited to an officer of the law.

His posture is casual and non-threatening as the door opens, and he smiles at Geoff.

“Ah, good!” He says in an even, friendly voice. “And here I was starting to worry no one was home!”

“Oh no, we’re here.” Geoff shakes his head. Jackie’s no expert, but as far as she can tell he’s doing a pretty decent job of playing it cool. “Just in the middle of dinner, is all, so it took us a sec to get to the door. Sorry about that.”

The officer smiles.

“Of course, sorry to interrupt you all, but I just have a few quick questions I wanted to ask, and then I’ll be on my way. Mind if I step inside?”

“Of course not.” Geoff says quickly, opening the door wider.

As the man steps inside, Jackie struggles to neither stare at him nor look like she is avoiding his gaze. How often is it appropriate to look a stranger in the face when they’ve just entered your home?

Gavin meanwhile, has started shoveling food into his mouth, probably hoping to avoid having to talk, while Michael is merely pushing the food around on his plate. Only Ray seems to be managing to look calm.

“So.” Geoff says as casually as possible. “What can we do for you? There isn’t any trouble in the neighborhood, is there?”

“Not that I know of.” The policeman says, smiling again. “First things first, my name is Officer Jameson, and you should know that I’ve already transmitted my location to the police database. If I don’t leave here alive, the entire force will know where to find you. On the other hand, if we can come to an agreement, I’ll make sure to erase any record that I ever visited you.”

There is a long, could-hear-a-pin-drop silence. Gavin has stopped eating. Jackie has given up trying not to stare. Even Ray and Geoff look uncertain.

Michael sets his fork down with a clatter, starting all of them, and Jameson laughs.

Geoff squares his shoulders and fixes the officer with a stern look.

“What exactly do you mean by agreement?”

“I’m not here to arrest you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Jameson says, with a placating gesture. “I’m here because we both want the same thing.”

“Which is?” Geoff prompts him after a moment.

Jameson grins.

“The extinction of the Crimson Pirates.” 

There is a long silence before Gavin speaks, quietly enough that only those at the table hear,

“Anyone else getting deja vu?”


	26. Chapter 26

“What I’m hoping for here, is a mutually beneficially exchange of information.” Officer Jameson says into the silence. “Similar to what happened three weeks ago.”

“And you connected us to that how, exactly?” Jackie asks, trying to sound skeptical but not defensive. She has no idea if she’s succeeding or not.

“Well, I couldn’t actually trace you through your tip,” Jameson explains, “but from the way it was phrased, I had a hunch whoever sent it in had actually been inside the building, seen the vault for themselves. Weirdly enough though, none of our contacts in the Pirates had dropped off the tip. So I went through the security camera footage, for the previous month, looking for anything out of the ordinary. I almost missed it, but about a week before the arrests, the company that cleans catering uniforms for the building picked up some dirty laundry. About five minutes later, two guys show up from the same company, hauling clean laundry back inside. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of dry cleaning that fast.”

He pauses, looking at Gavin and Michael who both wince.

“Anyway, long story short I ran the faces of nearly everyone who came and went in the building that day, recognized five out of the six of you, and managed to match your records together in a pattern that shows you work as a team. From there it wasn’t hard to screen a few of my contacts to find out who you were, what you called yourselves, and where I could stake myself out to follow you back to your base.”

“And you didn’t tell anyone else on the police force?” Ray puts in dubiously.

Jameson shakes his head.

“You may not believe it, but no, I didn’t. Because right now, the Crimson Pirates are the force's biggest problem. They also seem to have a vendetta against you, and judging by your recent actions, the feeling is mutual. Am I wrong?”

“No.” Michael says quietly.

“Good.” Jameson grins. “On to my proposal. You know things about the Pirates I don’t and vice versa. We both want to bring them down, and knowledge is power, so we may as well share it.”

“And in exchange you won’t turn us in.” Geoff says carefully. “That’s the deal for now. But what about when this is over?”

“When it’s over, I’ll wipe all the information I have on you.” Jameson insists. “I won’t investigate you any further. I can’t promise to keep the rest of the force off your backs, but they won’t get any help from me.”

“That’s an awfully big breach of ethics for a cop, isn’t it?” Michael asks, raising an eyebrow. “Why go so far?”

Jameson’s grin widens.

“Like I said, I’m looking to move up in the world. And next time top brass comes looking for someone to promote, who better than the officer who brought down one of the biggest crime syndicates in San Andreas?”

“Oh.” Gavin says quietly. “Yeah, I guess that does make sense.”

“Right.” Jackie nods. “So we help you become the golden child of the force, and you help us clear a path to move up the ladder of power. That’s the deal, right?”

Jameson nods.

“Take it or leave it. Although if you leave it…”

“You’ll turn us in.” Michael snaps. “Yeah, we got that part.”

“Geoff?” Ray prompts as everyone turns to look at the man in question.

Geoff sighs.

“Well, I won’t make this decision without your support, but… Seems like this is a pretty good deal.”

There are nods all around the table, before Gavin says quietly,

“What about Ryan? Shouldn’t we wait to see what he thinks?”

“It’d be a majority decision either way.” Michael shrugs. “And we’ve already got a majority.”

“No, Gavin’s right.” Geoff says, shaking his head. “We should wait to get Ryan’s input.”

Jameson reaches into his pocket and pulls out a card with a phone number hand written on it.

“This is a secure line. Call me within a week with your answer.”

Geoff nods, taking the card, and the officer makes his exit, leaving everyone to stare at each other in silent confusion.

“Okay, but seriously.” Gavin says, louder now. “Was that not scarily close to what happened with Ryan?”

“This guy doesn’t want to join.” Ray points out. “Just information. Although I am starting to wonder how many people must hate the Pirates, that this has happened twice.”

Michael shakes his head.

“If there’s a third time, I’m out. I’m with Gavin on this, that was some freaky shit.”

“I don’t care how freaky it is.” Geoff says bluntly. “I don’t care if it’s fate or coincidence, if it helps, it helps. And I have a feeling this is going to help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well look at that, it's a reasonably timely chapter update! Hope everyone enjoys :)


	27. Chapter 27

Ryan’s take on Jameson is,

“Sounds risky, to be honest. Cops tend to view people like us as lesser beings. Their word doesn’t mean much when they’re dealing with us. On the other hand, I can’t see that we have much of a choice. And it will help, for now. We’ll just have to be careful down the road.”

With this in mind, Geoff calls Jameson and agrees to his deal, leaving the crew to plan their next move; doing something big enough to let the Pirates know they’re back.

They end up settling on a fairly simple scheme; an armoured car robbery. It’s flashy but fast, they can be done within twenty minutes.

It ends up taking barely fifteen to do the actually deed, including Ray spray-painting their logo on the side of the truck, to leave no doubt as to who is responsible.

On the other hand, losing the police takes nearly four hours, and there are several near misses. Gavin and Jackie’s car even stalls for a moment in the middle of the street, leaving them both alternately swearing and praising the sky when it starts up again just in time.

Back at base they all embrace each other, exhausted but too pumped with adrenaline to even think of sleeping.

Instead, Jackie suggests going out to eat. There’s a restaurant near the center of town with great food and better booze, so everyone agrees eagerly.

Except, of course, Ryan, who mumbles some excuse and starts heading for his car.

“Aww, c’mon!” Geoff protests. “We’re going out to celebrate! You’ve gotta come along!”

“I’m not hungry.” Ryan says, shrugging.

“You don’t _have to_ eat.” Ray points out. “You can just hang out. Like we do any other time.”

Ryan hesitates.

Jackie reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder.

“You should come. It’s not the same if we’re not all together.”

“Alright.” Ryan agrees, and Jackie would swear she can hear a reluctant smile in his voice.

Geoff grins like it’s Christmas.

“Good man! You won’t regret this!”

\---

True to his claims about not being hungry, Ryan neither eats nor drinks even as the rest of them take their fill, but seems to be having fun despite it.

He laughs at Jackie’s stories about regulars at her old club, participates in every one of Geoff’s many toasts, talks shop with Michael and Ray about video games, and even indulges Gavin’s drunken questions, which become increasingly more incoherent as the night goes on.

Near four in the morning, the group finally decides to call it a night.

Out in the parking lot, Ryan offers to take someone back in his car, so Ray’s will be less crowded.

Jackie frowns. “Aren’t you heading back to your place, though?”

“I don’t mind.” Ryan insists. “Really.”

“I’ll go.” Michael offers. “I don’t wanna sit between Gavin and Geoff again.”

Jackie can’t say she blames him, considering Geoff is gesturing so wildly as he talks that everyone is keeping their distance to avoid being elbowed, and Gavin is currently asleep on Ray’s shoulder, drooling a bit.

Ryan just nods, and he and Michael get into his car.

Jackie turns around to help Ray buckle the barely awake Gavin into his seat, but as Ryan pulls out of the space next to them, she swears she hears Michael's voice faintly asking,

“So what’s your fucking deal anyway?”

She worries, as much as the alcohol will let her anyway, but when they all meet up again the next afternoon nothing seems to have changed between the two men, so she dismisses it.

Even so, she can’t seem to fully shake the question, or it’s implications, from her head.

There is no longer much doubt in her mind that Ryan is hiding something from the rest of them, but what? And more importantly, why?


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're starting to head towards the climax of this section, so the tone is gonna be a little darker than it has been, but I promise there's still happy ending, and I won't kill any of the boys.

They don’t have to wait long to find out if the Pirates have noticed their return. 

The morning of the third day after the armoured car job, Geoff gets two calls within five minutes about fires set at both their warehouses on opposite sides of town, the red skull and crossbones mark left spray-painted at both sites.

By some miracle, no one is hurt, and the northern warehouse even manages to put out the fire before too much damage is done. The southern location will need at least a week to be up and running again, but at least the structure itself is still standing.

All in all, it could have been much, much worse, which is exactly what Geoff tells them all after he finishes taking the calls.

“We’ve still gotta be careful though. We got lucky this time, but these assholes are nothing if not persistent."

Jackie nods, before jumping a little as her phone rings.

She answers it hesitantly.

“Hi!” Says a cheerful voice on the other end. “Is this Jackie?”

“...yes.” She says after a moment. “Who is this?”

“It’s Rosie! We used to work at the club together, remember?”

“Oh, yeah…” Jackie does remember her now, a slightly younger woman with strawberry blonde hair. “Um, how are you?”

“I’m doing real good!” Rosie says with enthusiasm. “Listen, I was thinking the other night how I haven’t seen you since you left, and I thought we should get a drink sometime!”

“Oh.” Jackie says again.

Somehow the idea that the club and the people in it still exist feels strange, and she’s not quite sure if she wants to reconnect with that world. Still, she remembers Rosie as a nice girl, and she can’t say she’s not flattered that the other woman wants to see her again.

“Alright.” She says, nodding. “Have any particular place in mind?”

“Ten tomorrow night at Nicky’s?” Rosie says almost immediately.

“Sure.” Jackie nods even as she holds the phone to her ear. “Sounds good. I’ll see you there.”

\---

She arrives at Nicky’s, a little back alley dive bar the girls from the club used to frequent, at the appointed time the next night.

As she pulls into the parking lot she is suddenly hit by a strange feeling of forboding. The flickering neon sign above the bar’s entrance, which she always found comforting when she visited before, suddenly looks sinister, and the pools of darkness at the edges of the lot seem to be creeping inwards toward her.

Jackie shakes herself and climbs out of her car.

There is a hand over her mouth before she can even think to scream, and the cold metal barrel of a gun jammed against her temple. She kicks backwards instinctively, but freezes as the gun presses harder against her skull.

“Easy there, little girl.” Says a voice in her ear.

The man starts moving backwards, forcing Jackie to walk with him as he heads out of the pool of light provided by the bar.

In the darkness is a black van, it’s passenger door sitting open, and inside the van she can see Rosie, eyes wide with terror, handcuffed to the opposite door.

The younger woman is thinner and paler than Jackie remembers her, hair cut sloppily short and a dark bruise around one eye.

“I’m sorry…” She squeaks in a barely audible voice as the man takes his hand off Jackie’s mouth and forces her roughly into the seat. “Jackie, I’m so, so sorry. They said if I helped them get to you they wouldn’t hurt me--”

“Shut up, bitch.” Growls a voice from the front seat, the driver turning around to glare at Rosie, who immediately stops talking. He turns his head to look at Jackie and throws her a pair of handcuffs. “Cuff yourself in.”

Jackie grits her teeth, but with the gun still pointed at her head there’s not much she can do. She picks up the cuffs and locks one side around the door handle, her mind racing desperately to think of some way to get out of this situation.

“Do it!” The first man shouts.

There is the loud, resounding echo of a gunshot. Rosie screams and Jackie flinches, but it’s not either of them that has been hit.

The man holding the gun collapses, first to his knees, then onto his face, blood dripping from his nose and mouth. Behind him, Jackie can see a figure silhoutted by the dingy neon glow of the bar. But even though it’s only an outline, there’s no mistaking the mask on the man’s face.

Ryan raises his gun again, pointing it at the driver of the vehicle as he approaches the van.

“Don’t move a fucking muscle.”


	29. Chapter 29

Jackie doesn’t waste any time, pulling out her own gun and training it on the driver as well.

“Give me the keys.” He starts to reach for the van’s ignition, and Jackie snaps, “To the handcuffs, asshole.”

The man nods, hands shaking as he reaches into his pocket and produces a small silver key.

Jackie snatches it from his palm and tucks her gun away, leaning over Rosie to unlock the cuff from her arm.

“Come on.” She murmurs, putting an arm around the smaller woman’s shoulder and gently guiding her out of the van. “It’s okay now. You’re okay.”

Rosie nods, her whole body trembling as fresh tears start to run down her already tear-stained face.

“He-- He’s dead.” She whispers, eyes wide. “That man, he’s dead, he-- he shot him. He’s dead…”

Jackie sighs. She’s almost forgotten what it feels like to react that way to death. Almost forgotten that the indifference she feels now isn’t normal.

“I know.” She says soothingly, helping Rosie step onto the pavement, noticing only then that the other woman’s feet are bare and covered in scrapes and scratches. “I know, but you’re safe now. It’s okay.”

Just then the sound of screeching tires reaches all of their ears, and Jackie whips her head around to see a familiar car come skidding to a stop in the parking lot.

Geoff, Ray, and Michael come spilling out, guns drawn, and Rosie screams, trying to hide herself behind Jackie.

“It’s okay!” Jackie assures both parties, holding up her hands defensively. “It’s okay guys, Ryan and I have got this under control. Please put the guns down.”

Geoff lowers his gun as he takes in the scene, before gesturing to the van’s driver. “Ray, Michael, can you help Ryan get that guy secured? We can take him back to base with us.”

The other two nod, going to retrieve rope and handcuffs, while Geoff approaches Jackie.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” Jackie nods. “Ryan got here just in time. But how did you guys know I was here? Did Ryan call you?”

“Jameson did.” Geoff says, shaking his head. “He got a tip that the Pirates had set a trap for you, planning on holding you for ransom to get back at us, I guess. Not sure how Ryan knew though.” He frowns a little at the woman still trying to hide behind Jackie. “Who’s this?”

“This is Rosie.” Jackie says, glaring at the driver, who is being cuffed and hogtied by Ray and Michael, while Ryan keeps a gun trained on his head. “We used to work at the club together. I guess the Pirates decided to use her as bait.”

“Low down pieces of shit.” Geoff grumbles. He looks over Jackie’s shoulder, trying to catch Rosie’s eyes. “Don’t worry, you’re safe now. Someone will take you home.”

“I’ll do it.” Jackie says quickly, but Geoff shakes his head.

“Sorry, but you just came this close to getting kidnapped, I don’t think going off on your own is the best idea right now.”

“I don’t want to go home.” Rosie pipes up from behind Jackie. “What if they come back?”

Jackie sighs.

“Okay, where do you want to go?”

Rosie glances sideways at Geoff before whispering,

“I want the police.”

“We can’t take you to the police.” Jackie says, biting her lip. “They’ll try to get information about us out of you…”

“She can go to the police.” Ryan’s voice says from behind Jackie, and she turns to stare at him. “I can take her to Jameson. Any information about us he might try to get out of her, he already knows anyway.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Geoff says, looking impressed.

“Okay.” Jackie nods, turning back to Rosie. “Ryan’s gonna take you to the police, alright?”

Rosie looks terrified. “I don’t want to go with him. He shot that man.”

“He did that to protect me.” Jackie assures her. “To protect us. He won’t hurt you.” She takes a deep breath. “I know this is a loaded question after everything that’s just happened, but do you trust me?”

Rosie hesitates for a long moment before nodding.

“Okay.” Jackie smiles. “Good. Then trust Ryan.”

Rosie hesitates again, longer this time, but finally steps out from behind Jackie and towards Ryan, who starts to lead her to his car.

“Alright.” Geoff sighs, turning to watch Ray and Michael load the tied up Crimson Pirates member into his trunk. “Let’s go home.”


	30. Chapter 30

Jackie sits in the back seat of Geoff’s car next to Ray, while Michael drives her car instead. Secretly, she’s glad Geoff insisted on not letting her drive, because now that all other concerns are covered, the panic at having been almost kidnapped is starting to set in.

She feels dizzy and shaky and judging from the worried expression on Ray’s face, she doesn’t look so good either.

She sighs, slumping against the window.

“Jesus.”

“Yeah.” Ray agrees quietly.

“They’ll pay for this.” Geoff says from the front seat, face set in a grim, serious expression even as his eyes burn with fury.

The rest of the ride passes in silence, Jackie’s breathing slowly evening out while Geoff’s grip on the steering wheel tightens until his knuckles are white.

A block from the nondescript house that serves as their base, all three of them start to smell smoke, and it doesn’t take long to find out why.

The base’s door is gone, the windows shattered, and the front ceiling sagging as smoke rises in heavy black clouds from bits of burning debris scattered inside and out. At the center of the destruction is a black crater, a few chunks of metal all that are left of the bomb that caused it.

Geoff seems to forget about driving, the car slowing to a stop as they all stare, horrified, at the remains of their beloved home.

The world seems to have gone silent, everything moving in slow motion. Jackie can hear nothing but her own heart pounding in her ears until Ray’s frantic shout breaks through the fog.

“Gavin’s in there!”

Her body seems to move on it’s own as she feels herself throw open the car door, kicking off her heels into the street as she races across the lawn and up the splintered, smoldering steps.

The house is dimly lit, none of the lights seeming to function after the blast, and the walls are stained black with soot. 

It takes Jackie a long, terrifying moment before she spots Gavin in the gloom, lying sprawled on the kitchen floor. He appears to have been at least partially shielded from the explosion by the counter that separates kitchen from dining room, but even so, he doesn’t look good.

He’s unconscious, and there’s a trickle of blood oozing slowly down the side of his face from under his wild, soot-blackened hair.

Jackie feels like she’s moving underwater as she steps towards him. Behind her she can hear the shouts of the rest of the team as they follow her inside, but they feel distant and hardly register.

She bends down next to Gavin, noticing now that one of the sleeves of his shirt has almost completely burned away, leaving several nasty-looking welts on the skin.

“Gavin?” She asks softly, and her voice seems to echo inside her own head.

Gavin doesn’t answer, but he’s definitely breathing, so Jackie leans forward and brushes back his hair, revealing a small tear in his scalp from which blood is still sluggishly flowing. On the surface, it doesn’t look like too bad of an injury, but Jackie doesn’t want to think about the internal damage that might have occurred.

She hears clattering footsteps behind her and turns to see Geoff standing just behind her, frozen and pale, Ray and Michael next to him with nearly identical expressions of fear and anger.

At the same time, Gavin stirs. He groans loudly, putting a hand to his head and trying to sit up. Jackie hurries over to help him, and Ray quickly appears on Gavin’s other side.

Michael crouches on the floor in front of him, trying to get a good look at Gavin’s face, which he has partially covered with on hand.

“Gavin? Gav? Can you hear me?”

“Mm— Michael?” Gavin asks, his voice a bit slurred.

“Yeah.” Michael nods. “Yeah, it’s me. It’s all of us. We’re here, you’re gonna be okay.”

It’s hard to tell whether Gavin has registered any of this, because his only response is,

“What’s that noise?” 

“What noise?” Ray asks, concerned.

“It’s so _loud_.” Gavin complains, nearly shouting himself as he puts his hands over his ears. “Like an alarm? Can't you hear it? I can’t hear you. Can’t even hear me. Too loud.”

“Fuck.” Michael mutters. “Must have damaged his hearing.”

Ray looks terrified.

“But it’ll— he’ll get better, right?”

“I don’t know.” Michael answers helplessly. “It’s hard to tell right now. Sometimes it heals and sometimes it’s permanent.”

“We need to take him to the hospital.” Geoff says quietly, speaking for the first time since entering the house. He voice is carefully steady, his jaw set. “I don’t care if it tips off the police. Gavin’s more important.”

“I… I might have another idea.” Michael suggests, biting his lip. “I have a friend, a doctor, she’s taught me everything I know about what bombs can do to a person. I don’t know how to fix any of that damage, but she does.”

"And you're sure she'll be able to do as well as a hospital would?"

"I wouldn't have suggested this if I wasn't."

It’s a testament to how deeply they all trust one another that Geoff only hesitates a fraction of a second before nodding.

“Take us to her.”

Michael pulls out his phone and starts to dial while Jackie and Ray help Gavin carefully to his feet.

“Lindsey?” Michael says into the receiver as they make their way back through the charred doorway. “I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't actually planning on putting Lindsey in this fic but whoops I slipped. Similar to the rest of the crew her character in the heist videos doesn't have much of a "canon" personality, so I just kind of went along with some of the headcanons/ideas I've seen in the fandom and other fics.


	31. Chapter 31

Michael’s friend Lindsey has a soft, kind face that does not in any way diminish the air of competence that surrounds her as she examines and treats Gavin’s injuries. She is capable and efficient, but not cold. Watching her work, Jackie can’t help but feel that Gavin is safe in her hands.

All in all, Gavin is lucky to have suffered as little damage as he has. The burns, cuts, and bruises are painful but not lasting. He has a concussion, but Lindsey judges it should heal without permanent damage. The main concern is his ears. According to Lindsey’s assessment, he won’t be completely deaf, but his hearing could take months to heal, and may never fully recover.

Gavin takes this news surprisingly well, although that probably has more to do with the painkillers than anything else.

Geoff notifies Ryan of what has happened, and Ryan stops by the house to clear away anything incriminating before meeting back up with the rest. They all stand glumly in Lindsey’s living room, watching Gavin doze on the beaten up couch with worried faces. No one quite knows what to say.

—

The next few days are consumed by finding a new home. The old house can be repaired, of course, but they can hardly use it as a base now that the Pirates obviously know where it is.

Eventually Geoff finds them a place in a more remote part of town, far from Pirate territory, but moving into the new place brings a lot of challenges as well. They’re starting from scratch in more ways than one.

In the first place, most of their possessions couldn’t be recovered before the police got a hold of everything and asked too many questions. They have to buy new dishes, towels, bedsheets, clothing, a new gaming system, the list goes on.

In addition to that, none of them have before experienced the feeling that their base, their home, might be less than secure. While it’s not the first time they’ve been attacked on their own turf, this was decidedly more personal. Jackie can’t help but find herself wondering if the Pirates somehow know where they have gone, if they are watching them right now.

She knows the others feel it too, she can tell by the way they constantly check over their shoulders and out windows, or tense up just before rounding a corner, as of half expecting something to be there.

But the biggest challenge of all comes when Geoff asks Ryan to move in with them.

The other members of the group have all been living at base for months now, but Ryan has barely ever even spent the night. He spends so much of his days there now that he might as well live with them (a point that Geoff is sure to bring up), but always manages to find an excuse not to eat, and always retires to his own apartment when the rest start heading to bed.

Up until now Geoff has insisted that they should all do their best to respect Ryan’s privacy, but the attack on their base has activated Geoff’s protective side to a level none of them have ever quite seen before. The idea of Ryan heading out alone every night, sleeping in an apartment halfway across the city with none of the rest of them around to protect him, is clearly causing Geoff great distress.

Ryan feels a bit differently. 

“No.” Is his flat response to Geoff’s prepared speech about the benefits of living at base.

Geoff, usually slow to anger when it comes to his team, glares.

“Why the fuck not?”

Ryan sighs. Even though his face is covered, his posture and movements give away how uncomfortable he is.

“I-- I can’t live with other people. It’s-- I’m not-- It just wouldn’t work.”

Geoff shakes his head, starting to pace.

“Look, if you need something, some… accommodations or something like that, we’re willing to help. And we’re… we won’t mock you for anything, or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about. We’re your friends.”

“I know.” Ryan says quietly. “And I… appreciate that, but I’m just not comfortable living with anyone, even if it’s all of you. I’m sorry.”

Ryan stands up and heads for the door, Geoff simply watching as the other man leaves.

“I told you.” Michael says, frowning, as they hear Ryan’s car start up outside. “He still doesn’t trust us. He’s never going to trust us.” Ray opens his mouth, but Michael cuts him off before he can speak. “And don’t tell me to ‘give him time’ again, okay? He’s had six fucking months.”

Geoff shakes his head. “It’s not only about trust. It’s… he’s scared of something. I just wish I knew what that was.”


	32. Chapter 32

Even as they all try their best to settle into their new home, another, equally important, task also demands the crew’s attention.

The captured driver of the car from the Pirates attempt to kidnap Jackie still waits tied up in a warehouse close to their old base. With any luck, he’ll have some useful information, although there is some debate on how far they should go to get it.

As it turns out, that debate is completely unnecessary, because the first thing out of them man’s mouth when they walk into the room is,

“I’ll tell you everything!”

“Oh?” Geoff raised an eyebrow. “And what is ‘everything,’ exactly?”

“Just— e-everything. Anything. Whatever you want to know! Just please don’t hurt me!”

Geoff shrugs.

“Works for me. Who do you work for?”

The man scoffs. He is sitting in a chair with his arms tied behind his back, but he rolls one shoulder forward as much as he can to call attention to the skull and crossbones tattoo on his upper bicep.

“Who the fuck does it look like a work for?”

Geoff rolls his eyes.

“More specific than that, asshole. I know you work for the Pirates, but who? What’s his name? Where does he operate from?”

The man scowls, hesitating for a long moment. Ryan makes a move to take his gun from the holster at his hip, and this seems to jog their prisoner’s memory.

“Eric. Eric Blackguard.”

“Seriously?” Ray asks, raising an eyebrow. “That just _sounds_ like a bad-guy name. How the fuck does that even happen?”

Geoff ignores him.

“So this Blackguard guy, he leads the Pirates?”

The man in the chair laughs.

“Not the whole thing. I have no fucking idea who that is. They keep us ignorant on purpose. But Blackguard’s who I report to.”

“But you must know something more about the structure.” Ryan said, hand still on his gun, although he hasn’t actually taken it out. “Even if you don’t know who’s at the top, you know how it runs.”

“Yeah, I’m getting to that, keep your fucking pants on.” The man says, rolling his eyes, although he doesn’t actually continue until Geoff prompts him.

“Well?”

“ _Well_ , the Pirate’s territory is split into five sections, right? Each section’s got a boss, a guy everybody in that area reports to. Higher up than that I’m not sure, but I assume the cell bosses all report back to the big guy.” He glances nervously at Jackie. “Or girl, whatever, all the same to me. I don’t have a problem with chicks doing that kinda stuff!”

Jackie just sighs.

“So Blackguard is the boss of your territory, then?”

“Yeah.” The man nods. “You can tell who works in what territory by the tattoos.”

“The skull and crossbones?” Gavin guesses.

“Yep.” The man grins. “Every Pirate’s got one. Those of us who work for Blackguard get his initials done in the skull’s left eye.”

“Wait, wait.” Michael puts in, frowning. “Every single person who works for the Crimson Pirates has one of these tattoos? Isn’t that, y’know, dangerous?” 

The man laughs.

“You don’t get it, do you? The point is that it’s dangerous. Or it would be. But the Pirates run this town, everybody knows that. You come down on one of us, we all come down on you. So it doesn’t matter who knows you’re a Pirate, because being a Pirate makes you untouchable. It’s an honor to be marked.”

“Sounds more like branding cattle to me.” Ryan scoffs, finally taking his hand off his gun to cross his arms over his chest.

The man looks up at him, then around at all of them, with something almost like pity.

“You don’t understand. None of you do. You don’t know what it’s like to be a part of something like this, to… to have allies always at your back, an army behind you...”

The six members of the Fake AH Crew glance at one another for the briefest of moments, a small confirmation, but Jackie already knows she speaks for all of them.

“Yes we do.”

Their prisoner snorts derisively.

“Pretty pathetic army.”

“We’re better than an army.” Geoff says firmly, holding the other man’s gaze. “We’re a family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm looking at having this be about 40 chapters, so we're getting close!


End file.
